As if Mixed Relay races were not exciting enough, add to the mix a penalty to be served just a few meters before crossing the finish line by the leading athlete and you have what happened this Sunday at the 2021 Hamburg Wasser World Triathlon Mixed Relay Hamburg, where the German team put the perfect ending to the weekend by crossing the finish line in first place in a dramatic way. Italy run away with the silver medal, while the young team from Denmark earned the first-ever relay medal finishing in third place.
15 women were in charge of starting
the race in the iconic pontoon on the Hamburg city center, with Erika Ackerlund
(USA) wearing the number 1 that gave her the chance of choosing her spot on the
start first. And while she choose the far right corner, great swimmers like
Olivia Mathias (GBR), Laura Lindemann (GER), Natalie Van Coevorden (AUS),
Alberte Kjaer Pedersen (DEN) and Nicole Van Der Kaay (NZL) all went to the
opposite side, with Mathias leading the small group of six that opened a small
gap in the first leg of the 300m swim.
Even though they managed to get out
of the water with a small gap, it was not enough to prevent most of the chasers
to catch them as soon as they were on their bikes, and soon a group of 12
athletes was riding together until they all entered transition for the fast
run. It was then the moment for Kjaer Pedersen, current U23 silver medallist at
the World Championships, to prove that she is one of the fastest athletes of
the moment, with only Lindemann able to follow her. They both tagged their
teammates on the lead, with Team Italy right on their feet.
And it was Team Italy, with Alessio
Crociani, who decided to go up front on the bike followed by Emil Holm (DEN),
Lasse Nygard-Priester (GER), Saxon Morgan (NZL), Daniel Dixon (GBR) and Chase
Mcqueen (USA). They managed to leave behind them Team Australia, Team
Netherlands and Team Canada, while Team Spain was almost one minute back, but
when it came to the second run segment of the day, it would be Spaniard Antonio
Serrat Seoane the one storming the field to breach the gap and almost make
contact with the leading group. Meanwhile, Emil Holm pushed hard enough to tag
his teammate in the lead with almost 10 seconds of a difference.
With Holm handing over to Six Bendix
Madsen for Team Denmark, it was clear that it won’t be easy to leave the young
Danish team behind, and the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Games silver medallist was
able to stay up front, followed by Ainsley Thorpe, Marlene Gomez-Islinger and
Carlotta Missaglia (ITA) throughout the whole leg, leaving even further behind
two of their main rivals for the day: Summer Rappaport from Team USA and Sian
Rainsley for Great Britain.
By the time of the anchor leg, the leading
group was only of four teams: Italy, Germany, New Zealand and Denmark, and Tim
Hellwig and Gianluca Pozzatti decided to go full gas from the beginning of the
last leg. By the time they mounted their bikes it was just the two of them, but
the drama will begin just at that moment. Hellwig took the bike before
fastening the helmet, which means a 10 seconds penalty to be served right
before crossing the finish line. He knew it, and he decided to try to save some
legs on the bike to give it all on the run, knowing that a sprint finish like
the one that gave him gold the day before wouldn’t work this time.
The young German went full gas from
the moment he left the second transition, and managed to open a gap of 10
seconds in the first lap of the two needed. Would that be enough? Hellwig
stopped at the penalty box holding his breath, desperately looking back hoping
to not see Pozzatti turning around the last corner for the likely ten longest
seconds of his life. It ended up being enough. And Hellwig grab the famous
Hamburg tape to be hugged by his teammates, with a delighted Team Italy
finished in second. Oscar Gladney Rundqvist had the run of his life to earn
Denmark their first ever medal in Hamburg on the Mixed Relay, with the Kiwi
team finishing in fourth place.
“It was just a perfect race from the
whole team, everyone did a great job and it was a perfect weekend,” said Laura
Lindemann. It was indeed a glorious weekend for Germany, claiming the three
gold medals of the 2021 Hamburg Wasser World Triathlon Championship Series
Hamburg. “The team spirit was very good and that was key,” explained Lasse
Nygaard-Priester. The hero of the day Hellwig, couldn’t be happier: “I knew
straight away that this will be a penalty, so I tried to be a bit conservative
on the bike and had to go out in from the beginning of the run and I am just
happy it worked out.”
Also happy and proud was Team Italy,
especially the anchor man, Pozzatti. “I heard they (Germany) got a penalty so
he was really strong on the run, I tried my best to hold on, I knew 10-seconds
can be a long time and tried to stay as close as I could but just went too hard
in the end. I am super proud of this young team and super happy to share the
podium with them”, he said. “It’s a very good race from everyone. We are
younger but we have a whole day of power and we did our best,” said Beatrice
Mallozzi. It was indeed a great debut for most of the team members. “I am very
happy about this. It’s my debut in the major league of triathlon, WTCS Mixed
Relay, so I am very happy about this. I
know I am strong in the swim and the bike so I pushed hard in the first swim,
so I am very happy about this. On the run I tried to stay with the German team
so I could do changing of the position for my teammate Carlotta”, explained Crociani.
Alberte Kjaer Pedersen said: “It was
so exciting and it was really crazy and I loved every second of it. Everyone
did their best and then it just happened, we became third in Hamburg. It’s just
crazy.” Her teammate Oscar Gladney Rundqvist explained: “It was absolutely
crazy, I really didn’t expect for this to come. It was such a hard day
yesterday for me and just to see the team performance they did, it gave me so
much adrenaline. This is awesome and one of the best performances by this team
and so much motivation for the future”.
Results: Mixed Relay
1.Team I Germany GER 01:21:39
2.Team I Italy ITA 01:21:45
3.Team I Denmark DEN 01:22:32
4.Team I New Zealand NZL 01:22:40
5.Team I United States USA 01:22:51
ABOUT WORLD TRIATHLON
World Triathlon is the international
governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic sport of triathlon and all
related multisport disciplines around the world, including duathlon, aquathlon,
cross triathlon and winter triathlon. Triathlon made its Olympic debut in
Sydney 2000, with a third medal event, the Mixed Team Relay, added to the
programme at Tokyo 2020, while para triathlon was first added to the Paralympic
programme at Rio 2016. World Triathlon is proudly committed to the development
of the sport worldwide, with inclusion, equality, sustainability and
transparency at our core as we seek to help triathletes at all levels of the
sport to be extraordinary.
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