England Dominates Commonwealth Games Mixed Team Relay
Team England crossed the finish line in 1:16:40 with a 46 seconds advantage over runner-up Team Wales and 49 seconds over third place finishers Team Australia.
Team England's victory was led foremost by its leadoff and closing competitors. Leg 1 competitor Alex Yee posted a race-best 17:27 split that was 20 seconds better than the next-best effort by Hayden Wilde of Team New Zealand. Team England's Leg 4 competitor, Georgia Taylor-Brown, sealed the victory with a race-best 20:10 split that was 30 seconds faster than the next-best effort by Non Stanford of Team Wales.
Sophie Linn of Australia finished third after Jacob Birtwhistle, Natalie Van Coevorden and Matthew Hauser combined to put her right in the medal mix.
“The crowd really carried you round, the support was unbelievable,” Team England's Leg 3 competitor Samuel Dickinson told Commonwealth Games media . “There’s a lot of pressure as you wait in that tent to go.” Taylor-Brown added: “I thought I’d made the right decision not to wear a wetsuit but then I was panicking a bit before the start. I just wanted to swim hard, and when you’ve got a gap at the front you have time to do the little things right. At the top of the hill I thought it was time to take it all in, that crowd was incredible”
Race Recap
South Africa’s Jamie Riddle set the early pace in the water, emerging a full eight seconds ahead of Hayden Wilde of New Zealand after 300 meters. Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk, Barbados’ Matthew Wright and Yee chased them up the long ramp into transition.
Yee was able to get onto Wilde’s back wheel and the pair rode with Riddle throughout the first 5km loop, finding plenty of daylight to the chase pack including Mislawchuk, Iestyn Harris and Birtwhistle.
That gap was up to 16 seconds out onto the run, when it was Yee straight onto the gas. Wilde had no answer to the surge, Riddle dropped 45 seconds back as Birtwhistle found his groove to hit third, now just five seconds off the New Zealander.
When Sophie Coldwell of England got the second leg underway and emerged from the water her gap to Natalie Van Coevorden of Australia was 27 seconds, and Nicole Van Der Kaay of New Zealand close with the Australian.
Friday’s individual champion Flora Duffy picked up the duties for Bermuda and cut the team deficit to 70 seconds by the end of her 5km bike, but Wales’ Olivia Mathias put together the leg of the day (20:02), passing Van Coevorden (20:47) to take up position with Beth Potter (21:04) and Van Der Kaay of New Zealand (20:26) 30 seconds off the front at the halfway point.
Tayler Reid of New Zealand then cut the lead to 25 seconds to Grant Sheldon of Scotland. Dominic Coy of Wales and Matt Hauser of Australia were flying for Wales and Australia to catch Reid up the final hill and suddenly it was a former World Champion Non Stanford assuming the fourth and final effort for Wales.
Taylor-Brown’s swim was typically strong and with no wetsuit to remove and a fluid transition, she suddenly had 40 seconds of daylight and suddenly the only result in doubt was found among the three-way battle for the final spot on the podium.
Stanford, Linn and Hansen stuck together on the bike trying to conserve legs while also keeping Scotland’s Sophia Green at bay, but it was out onto the run that Linn took the initiative, spearheading the trio out of T2 on her way to a 20:54 split.
Up ahead, Georgia Taylor-Brown went on to take the tape and fall into the arms of her teammates. As Stanford produced a decisive final burst of speed to applause for a hard-fought silver, Linn crossing just three seconds behind. Andrea Hansen brought home New Zealand in fourth, Sophia Green and Scotland in fifth.
Commonwealth Games Triathlon Mixed Relay
Man / Woman / Man / Women
(S 300 meters / B 6.6 km / R 1km)
1. Team England Leg 1 Alex Yee 17:27 Leg 2 Sophie Coldwell 20:18 Leg 3 Samuel Dickinson 18:45 Leg 4 Georgia-Taylor-Brown 20:10 TOTAL 1:16:40
2. Team Wales Leg 1 Lestyn Harrett 18:10 Leg 2 Olivia Mathias 20:02 Leg 3 Dominic Coy 18:34 Leg 4 Non Stanford 20:40 TOT 1:17:26
3. Team Australia Leg 1 Jacob Birtwhistle 17:52 Leg 2 Natalie Van Coevorden 20:47 Leg 3 Matthew Hauser 18:07 Leg 4 Sophie Linn 20:43 TOT 1:17:29
4. Team New Zealand Leg 1 Hayden Wilde 17:47 Leg 2 Nicole Van Der Kaay 20:26 Leg 3 Tayler Reid 18:33 Leg 4 Andrea Hansen 20:51 TOT 1:17:37
5. Team Scotland Leg1 Grant Sheldon 18:13 Leg 2 Sophia Green 19:59 Leg 3 Cameron Main 19:19 Leg 4 Beth Potter 21:04 TOT 1:18:35
6. Team Canada Leg 1 Tyler Mislawchuk 18:31 Leg 2 Emy Legault 20:56 Leg 3 Charles Paquet 19:01 Leg 4 Dominika Jamnicky 21:33 TOT 1:20:01
7. Team Bermuda Leg 1 Tyler Smith 18:38 Leg 2 Flora Duffy 20:11 Leg 3 Tyler Butterfield 19:56 Leg 4 Erica Hawley 21:21 TOT 1:20:06
8. Team South Africa Leg 1 Jamie Riddle 18:10 Leg 2 Simone Ackermann 21:41 Leg 3 Henri Schoeman 19:20 Leg 4 Shanae Williams 22:06 TOT 1:21:17
9. Team Namibia Leg 1 Drikus Coetzee 20:44 Leg 2 Imke Jagau 24:02 Leg 3 Jean-Paul Burger 20:57 Leg 4 Anri Krugel 24:41 TOT 1:30:24
10. Team India Leg 1 Adarsh Muralidharan Nair Sinimol 20:31 Leg 2 Pragnya Mohan 24:09 Leg 3 Vishwanath Yadav 22:11 Leg 4 Sanjana Sunil Joshi 24:52 TOT 1:31:43
