Less than a year after the Mixed
Relay made its brilliant debut at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the national
teams are more than ready for round two of the format. Nineteen teams lined up
this Sunday for the AJ Bell Leeds Mixed Relay, a race that gives the first
points on the Mixed Relay Olympic qualification ranking for the Paris 2024
Games. And with a powerful display by Lasse Nygaard-Priester, Anabel Knoll,
Lasse Luhrs and Laura Lindemann, the Germans proved once again that they are
one of the strongest nations when it comes to Mixed Relays, claiming the
victory in Leeds in front of home favourites Team Great Britain, who could only
finish in second place, while Team France grabbed the last spot on the podium.
The teams faced a hilly and technical
course in Roundhay Park, with every athlete doing a 300m swim, followed by a
6.9km bike and a 1.9k run. The Relay was the first event counting for the Mixed
Relay Olympic Qualification system, but it was also the first one in which the
new rules of men starting the Relay and women crossing the finish line were in
place. A change that brought completely different dynamics to the Mixed Relay,
and put some teams up front that were a bit different than the usual ones in
the Relay.
The first 19 athletes -all males- lined
up on the pontoon in Waterloo Lake at 13.25h and it was clear from the
beginning that the German Team would be a hard one to beat today. Lasse Nygaard
Priester, 5th yesterday in the individual race, was the one in charge of
opening the race, and only a handful of athletes were able to follow him. One
of them has Tayler Reid (NZL), who along with Tom Richard (FRA) and Richard
Murray (NED) tried to open a bit of a break on the bike, but were quickly
caught by Team Belgium, Team UK and Team Australia. Mathew Mcelroy, from Team
USA, was last out of the water, and even though he tried to gain some time on
the bike and run, it was clear from the first leg that this will not be a race
on their favour.
With most of the women regrouping on
the swim to form a large pack with most of the favourites included, it was
Norway’s Lotte Miller who made the difference, and managed to bring her Team
from quite behind the leaders to start the run in the third place, with a bike
split that was by far the fastest of the day among the women. With only Sophie
Coldwell (GBR) and Valerie Barthelemy (BEL) ahead of them, the trio managed to
leave behind Team Germany with Anabel Knoll and Team France with Sandra Dodet,
with a pack behind of Team Australia, Team Portugal and Team Netherlands
closing the small group.
By the time it was the turn of the
last men, a magnificent swim by Lasse Luhrs and Jelle Geens was enough to have
them breaking away from the rest of the field, but as soon as both were on
their bikes, Leo Bergere (FRA) started a hunt that when it all came to the 2km
run, the difference was less than 3 seconds. The Frenchman showed again that he
is hard to beat on the bike, setting the fastest bike split of the day on the
technical and incredibly hard bike course in Leeds. Behind him, Gustav Iden
(NOR) showed again magnificent bike skills to put Team Norway back in the game,
while Grant Sheldon for Team GB managed to keep their hopes and stayed with the
group.
For the last leg, a fast and furious
swim from Audrey Merle (FRA) put them back together with the leading duo of
Laura Lindemann (GER) and Jolien Vermeylen (BEL), but the chase behind was
getting organised quickly. Georgia Taylor-Brown started to hunt the leaders on
the bike and by the time the three leading women were on their running shoes,
the British Olympic medallist had already Vermeylen in sight.
She also knew that the Belgian had to
serve a 10 seconds penalty for leaving equipment outside the box, and with that
in mind, she went on the chase. Vermeylen was the first one to be caught, Merle
to follow in the last run lap. Cheered by the hundreds of spectators that
gathered in Roundhay Park, Taylor-Brown seemed to fly on her run, but it was
not enough to chase Laura Lindemann, who was all smiles when she crossed the finish
line in the first place to be hugged -like in the pre Covid times- by her
teammates.
“It has been very exciting to be the
first men to start a Mixed Relay at the elite level”, said Lasse Priester: “I
think we had a great start. I was very concentrated on the run and was happy to
deliver in first position and thankful for the great job of the Team.” Anabel
Knoll said: “I am really happy that we could take the win, we did an amazing
job and it was really fun to start here in Leeds.” Bronze medallist in Leeds,
Luhrs, also talked about the happiness of winning another Mixed Relay race for
Team Germany, the current World Champions. “It was really hard today but great
to get the win. I just had fun out there and I am so happy we could take the
win today.” Laura Lindemann, on her side, said: “I was a bit afraid of Georgia
(Taylor-Brown) actually but I just tried to push as hard as I could because all
my team mates did such a great job and I just had to take it home. I am so
happy that we could do it.”
It was a delighted Taylor-Brown who
managed to bring home the silver medal in Leeds, after another magnificent run.
Tom Bishop said: “It’s the first time that it’s the first leg for a guy so I
didn’t really know what to expect. I
just thought I need to give Sophie (Coldwell) a sniff of the front and she did
a great job getting there.”
Sophie Coldwell explained that the
race for Team UK was “a bit tactical because it was really close together. It
was really close and I didn’t do as much work on the bike but gave it all I had
on the run. Tried to handover with as much ease as I can.” Sheldon was given
the handover in a prime position. “I tried to keep us in the race as much as
possible, I’m super lucky to have such a strong team around us,” he said.
Georgia Taylor-Brown: “I was just
inviting the burn to be honest so I just had to embrace it. The noise from the
crowd kind of blocked the pain out but I am feeling it now. The guys did
amazing, Tom (Bishop) and Grant (Sheldon) did a great job at stepping in after
Jonny (Brownlee) and Alex (Yee) had their accidents yesterday, they did
incredible, it’s never easy being called in at last minute. The Team did
amazing today.”
Another excellent run gave Merle
third place for Team France, and she was all smiles at the finish line. “I was
really nervous because it was my first experience in the Relay” she said. “I
tried to do my best and push on the bike. I knew the run would be very hard
with Georgia (Taylor-Brown) just behind me. I tried to just stay in my position
and push until the finish line”, she said.
Team Italy had another magnificent
come from behind led by Verena Steinhauser and crossed the line in the fourth
place, with Team Belgium, Team Australia, Team Norway and Team Portugal closing
the top 8, while Team USA could only finish in the 9th place and The
Netherlands finished in 10th.
The next Mixed Relay race will take
place in only two weeks at the Montreal Mixed Relay World Championships, a race
that will give the first direct classification -two men and two women- for the
Paris 2024 Games.
Results: Mixed Relay https://www.triathlon.org/results/result/2022_world_triathlon_championship_series_leeds/550671?mc_cid=b143e133b1&mc_eid=6139649918
1.Team I Germany GER 01:28:00
2.Team I Great Britain GBR 01:28:14
3.Team I France FRA 01:28:20
4.Team I Italy ITA 01:28:32
5.Team I Belgium BEL 01:28:40
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