Team France once again lived up to
their billing as triathlon’s Mixed Relay masters with another sizzling world
title win, this time landing the prize on the streets of Montreal.
The races came at the end of an
intense few days of action for many of the athletes off the back of the
individual WTCS Montreal elimination, but the French team brought in fresh legs
in the form of Emma Lombardi and the U23 world champion played a big role in
the win, along with Pierre Le Corre and Vincent Luis setting up Cassandre
Beaugrand to finally bring home the gold.
Two men and two women’s places on the
Paris 2024 start were on the line as well as the world championship titles, and
with France already qualified as hosts, those slots went to Great Britain after
Georgia Taylor-Brown’s remarkable finish secured the silver, USA finishing with
the bronze.
“I was pretty confident I would start
in a good position, after the swim I had a gap and tried to keep it, and
Cassandre finished the job. It proves France has a lot of resources and a new
generation coming and I’m looking forward to the relay in Paris,” said Luis.
“They did all the work, I just had to finish it,” added an understated
Beaugrand, “But it has been a very long weekend.”
It was the blue hair of Takumi Hojo
first out of the water in the opening leg for Japan, Italy’s Nicolo Strada and
Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk right with him, Alex Yee 7 and Hayden Wilde already
10 seconds back with Manoel Messias.
But Wilde was lightening up and into
transition, and Messias was able to bridge up on the bike, the whole field
coming together right the way to T2. Wilde put the hammer straight down and
stretched out the field, Messias moving up into second until Yee found his
stride and he and Wilde again were clear of the pack just like the previous
day’s individual final.
The pair tagged Ainsley Thorpe and
Sophie Coldwell respectively, Mislawchuk tagged Emy Legault for Canada 20
seconds back, while upfront it was Vittoria Lopes able to put Brazil into first
with her trademark swim skills, Coldwell and Thorpe tucked in behind, followed
closely by Lombardi and Natalie Van Coevorden for France and Australia, Taylor
Spivey and the USA 25 seconds back.
Lopes led the four athletes into T1
as Van Coevorden slipped back, but a slow transition saw the Brazilian needing
to work extra hard not to also lose touch.
Lotte Miller for Norway and Alberte
Kjaer Pedersen for Denmark led the charge, while Coldwell drove things on up
front, at the bell the gap was down to 13 seconds, and on the final lap the
packs had merged.
Pedersen was quickest away on the
run, opening a lead over Lombardi as those 12 quickly spread out, but the
French U23 World Champion responded with a brilliant burst of her own as the
two locked into battle to tag first.
It was Pedersen handing to the
newcomer Oscar Gladney Rundqvist for Denmark first, but there was little doubt
that Luis was going to be able to pull clear in the water and he put an
incredible 20 seconds over nearest contenders New Zealand and USA. Samuel
Dickinson for Great Britain missed his box with his helmet and suddenly the GB
team also had a 10 second penalty to contend with.
The question was whether Luis would
want to ride on his own for the duration of the bike, and he set about his task
with trademark determination, 19 seconds that gap to Kevin McDowell and Tayler
Reid in second and third and really pushing to keep the gap behind them. That
had dropped to 8 seconds to GB, Canada, Switzerland and Denmark who had to work
together if they were to make a podium possible.
McDowell had the fresh legs having
not raced on Saturday and was sharing pulls with Reid, Dickinson driving the
chasers but never really ate into the 30 second gap.
Heading out of transition for the
two-lap run, Luis and France still had 19 seconds over Reid and McDowell
despite riding solo, the chasing four of Canada, Denmark, Switzerland and Great
Britain also still 35 seconds off the leader, and that was exactly how it
stayed right to the final handover.
Cassandre Beaugrand took up the task
of bringing it home for France, and another assured swim helped her put 26
seconds into Summer Rappaport, Nicole Van Der Kaay now 8 seconds off the
American, Georgia Taylor-Brown a massive 52 seconds off the front.
Up through transition that gap had
already started to shrink, and over the first bike lap, Taylor-Brown suddenly
had Rappaport in her sights. Soon she had caught on to the pair in front,
collectively now 26 seconds off Beaugrand, but could the previous day’s gold
medallist find 10 seconds from somewhere on the run to make a podium?
Van Der Kaay wouldn’t let her go for
lap one, but suddenly Taylor-Brown found another gear and at the bell had 5
seconds from the New Zealander, 11 on Rappaport. Then the New Zealander blew up
and fell back, so that as Beaugrand took the tape and the embrace of her fellow
Mixed Relay World Champion teammates, Taylor Brown had 11 seconds of lead but
10 seconds of penalty to serve.
As Rappaport drew closer, the Brit
was finally released by the officials and flew clear, all the way to the line,
to the silver medal, and to a guaranteed team for Great Britain at the Paris
2024 Olympic Games. Rappaport brought home the bronze ahead of New Zealand,
Canada finishing with a strong fifth place.
“Thanks to my teammates, I really
can’t believe I’m a world champion,” said Pierre Le Corre afterwards. “Pierre
did a good job, of course Vincent and Cassandre too, I’m just really happy,”
added Lombardi.
“It’s amazing, I am absolutely over
the moon to share with these guys,” said Alex Yee. “To have such a good result,
it’s been a long weekend honestly but what a dream way to finish it.”
“I think when it’s for your team you
always find that little bit extra,” added Coldwell. “Like Alex said, it’s been
a tough couple of days of racing and just really proud of everyone for rallying
and getting another great performance out.”
“Obviously being on a team with these
superstars it’s always hard to sly in,” said Dickinson. “I didn’t make it easy
for G (Georgia Taylor-Brown), I might need to buy her a pair of sunglasses or
something but I am so thankful, she’s such a superstar and managed to bring it
home.”
“I really wasn’t sure, I was kind of
settling for fourth place as Van Der Kaay and Summer would outrun me because I
worked really hard on the swim and the bike,” said Georgia Taylor-Brown. “I was
using some very strong curse words for little Samuel on that race there but I
am glad we got there in the end!”
Full results can be found here. https://triathlon.org/results/result/2022_world_triathlon_sprint_relay_championships_montreal/547005?mc_cid=4231812525&mc_eid=6139649918
Results: Mixed Relay
1. Team
I France FRA 01:27:14
2. Team
I Great Britain GBR 01:27:37
3. Team
I United States USA 01:27:44
4. Team
I New Zealand NZLg 01:27:53
5. Team
I Canada CAN 01:29:06
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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