Germany Golden in Mixed Team Relay

Arguably the most dominant Mixed Relay team over the last few years, Germany now can add an Olympic gold medal to their trophy room.

From Tim Hellwig’s opening leg, Germany was near the front for the entirety of the race, never more than 17 seconds off the front. A savvy second run lap from Lisa Tertsch gave the Germans the lead entering the third leg. Lasse Luehrs matched Great Britain’s Sam Dickinson through most of the course. And a crucial closing sprint from Laura Lindemann saw her overcome GB’s Beth Potter and the USA’s Taylor Knibb to take the top step of the podium.

Potter and Knibb would hit the tape in a photo finish, with the review going the way of the Americans, repeating their silver medal from Tokyo. The opening leg of Seth Rider saw the Americans holding a top 10 spot and within striking distance of the lead. Taylor Spivey would move the U.S. into the top 5 for the first time. Morgan Pearson then led the charge of a four country chase pack on the bike, and turning in the second fastest run put the U.S. firmly in medal contention. And Knibb used one of the fastest swims of the day (and fastest of the anchor legs) to move into a medal position, then closed to Potter in the final moments of the bike, turning the event into a 1.9 kilometer run shootout, only unable to match Lindemann’s closing sprint.

GB were the long-time leaders of the race, with Alex Yee opening the lead account on the run of his starting leg. Georgia Taylor-Brown held strong, only being passed by Tertsch in the final run down to the exchange zone. Dickinson would reclaim that lead. And Potter would ride solo for much of the bike after a swim that shook Lindemann from her feet. Potter ran with Lindemann and Knibb, nearly getting dropped midway through loop two before closing back to the group, but her sprint was not enough to repeat the gold medal triumph from Tokyo.

A crash between France’s Pierre le Corre and New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde in the final hairpin turn of the bike eliminated those countries from medal contention before the race had even gotten started. The teamwork of Emma Lombardi, Leo Bergere, and individual gold medalist Cassandre Beaugrand would wind up putting the host nation fourth at the finish line, over a minute behind. New Zealand was the last team to finish the full distance.

As the Race Unfolded

There was plenty of pre-race drama on Sunday.

First, Belgium dropped out of the race entirely following an announcement that Claire Michel had fallen ill following Wednesday’s individual race. Although the illness was not directly specified, the team statement about the announcement seemed to indicate that the illness was related to swimming in the Seine. “The BOIC and Belgian Triathlon hope that lessons will be learned for future triathlon competitions at the Olympic Games such as guaranteeing training days, competition days and the competition format, which must be clarified in advance and ensure that there is no uncertainty for the athletes and support personnel.”

Switzerland also had last minute shuffling of their line-up, needing to replace Adrien Briffod with Simon Westermann. Briffod had developed a gastrointestinal infection, which Swiss Olympic Chief Medical Officer Hanspeter Betschart noted that it was unclear whether Briffod’s infection was related to the Seine’s water quality.

And speaking of the water — World Triathlon, in response to teams requesting a go-no go decision on water quality earlier than the 4 AM race morning calls that delayed the men’s race by a day, made the decision for the race to move forward at 8 PM local time Sunday night, determining that the water quality would be in-range for the following morning.

It appeared that the Netherlands’ Mitch Kolkman was one of many who false started the swim, but Portugal’s Ricardo Batista and Spain’s Alberto Gonzalez Garcia were the only ones who took 10 second penalties — Batista for the false start, Gonzalez Garcia for swim behavior. Once again, the swim coming back upstream in the Seine saw the first pack string out, with Brazil’s Miguel Hidalgo leading Germany’s Tim Hellwig, the United States’ Seth Rider, Austria’s Alois Knabl, and France’s Pierre le Corre. GB’s Alex Yee was not much further behind, but New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde did miss the front group.

Once riding, Spain’s Alberto Gonzalez Garcia went to the front of the group— perhaps in part to overcome his penalty which was yet to be served. That move was quickly closed down. Multiple riders, once their nose was on the front, immediately tried to get out of that position. le Corre seemed most comfortable riding in the front. Through the first loop of the bike, 10 countries remained in the lead pack: Austria, France, GB, Norway, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Australia, and the USA.

On the second lap of the bike, and everyone had come back together. At the turn around, there was a crash involving le Corre and Wilde, with le Corre suffering the worst mechanically and losing 25 seconds to the field in the process.

Exiting onto the run, Max Studer attacked on the first run lap, with Alex Yee and Tim Hellwig in tow. They’d eked out a three second gap over the field. Running along the second loop and Yee put the afterburners on, pulling out an additional few precious meters on the chasers as he handed off to Georgia Taylor-Brown.

Through the first leg, it was Great Britain, with Germany (+:03), Switzerland (+:05), Italy (:08), Norway and Australia(:12), Portugal (:13), Netherlands and Spain (:15), and the U.S. (:16) in the top 10. France was in last, :40 down, following le Corre’s crash.

The first women’s leg appeared to have the swim playing yet another critical role. Germany’s Lisa Tertsch had closed to Taylor-Brown’s feet, but a critical misjudgment of the current saw Tertsch lose that gap in short order. The rest of the pack had closed all back together, with silver medalist Julie Derron leading and towing a group including America’s Taylor Spivey.

On the bike and Taylor-Brown poured the power on, gaining a 16 second advantage on the field through the first loop. Tertsch and Italian Alice Betto, who had been riding as a chase pack, fell back to the remainder of the field, led by Derron and Spivey (minus France’s Emma Lombardi and New Zealand’s Nicole van der Kaay, who were attempting to erase the gaps created by Wilde and le Corre’s crash). Taylor-Brown was able to hold off the pack, holding a twelve second advantage into transition.

Speedy transitions saw Taylor-Brown, Derron, and Spivey as the leading trio out onto the run. Taylor-Brown was ceding time to Derron, who had closed to nine seconds, with Tertsch hot on her heels in third. Spivey was leading a group of Spain’s Anna Godoy Contreras, and Portugal’s Melanie Santos. By the relay handoff and Tertsch had taken to Taylor-Brown’s shoulder, and a final burst saw Germany in front to start the next group. Switzerland was third, Spain (still yet to serve penalties) fourth, and the U.S. fifth.

Back into the water and Great Britain’s Sam Dickinson re-took the lead, with Germany’s Lasse Luehrs and Switzerland’s Sylvain Fridelance on his feet. Italy’s Alessio Crociani and Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca appeared to take a better line to the stairway out of the water, passing the likes of the U.S.’s Morgan Pearson and Spain’s Antonio Serrat Seoane in the process.

To the bike and it was Dickinson and Luehrs working together to distance themselves from the field. The key chase, meanwhile, consisted of Pearson, Vilaca, Fridelance, and Crociani — just 17 seconds down from the lead. Serrat Seoane had been dropped, and was about to be swallowed by the next group on the road, led by Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt, 40 seconds back of the lead. Dickinson and Luehrs held that gap to the four man chase, but perhaps more interestingly, Blummenfelt had dragged himself (and Brazil and Spain) to within 15 seconds of the four man chase.

Loop one of the run and the four man chase had become three; Fridelance dropped off the group. The trio of chasers had trimmed four seconds out of Dickinson and Luehrs lead, now just 12 seconds separating the top 5. On the second loop, Dickinson surged on the return crossing of the Seine, gapping Luehrs by 5 seconds and re-opening the gap to the chase pack to 20 seconds.

GB’s Beth Potter took the lead into the swim, with Germany’s Laura Lindemann in hot pursuit. The swim again appeared difficult, with numerous athletes crashing into the two turn buoys with the current. Potter opened up a gap on Lindemann, but most shocking was Knibb — her 4:50 swim one of the fastest women’s swim of the day — and moving the U.S. into bronze medal position coming out of the water and with a 15 second gap over fourth place Portugal.

Knibb rode aggressively on loop one, closing up to Lindemann’s wheel before playing a quick game of cat and mouse. That effort had closed Potter’s lead down to 12 seconds, but had also opened up the gap to fourth place to 46 seconds — an eternity in this format. On the second loop, Knibb and Lindemann continued to eat into Potter’s lead steadily. It was just before the second hairpin on the course that they finally closed within meters of Potter, and Knibb would take the lead entering transition.

A slow transition for Knibb meant Potter would take a few meter lead exiting transition, with Lindemann just behind.They had over a minute separating her from fourth place France — an outstanding effort by all, and particularly gold medalist Cassandre Beaugrand. The three continued together through the first lap of the run, leaving it down to the final 900 meters for the medals to be decided.

Starting that second lap and the elastic to Potter seemed to be stretching slightly, with Potter dangling a few meters behind Knibb and Lindemann. In the final stretches Potter dug deep to try to close back onto that trio, while Lindemann made a surge as well. Lindemann took to the front as they hit the blue carpet for the sprint. Lindemann held on to bring Germany the gold medal, with Potter and Knibb in a photo finish. After review, the silver medal was awarded to the Americans.

Top 10 Results

1. Germany — Tim Hellwig / Lisa Tertsch / Lasse Luehrs / Laura Lindemann 1:25:39
2. USA — Seth Rider / Taylor Spivey / Morgan Pearson / Taylor Knibb 1:25:40
3. Great Britain — Alex Yee / Georgia Taylor-Brown / Sam Dickinson / Beth Potter 1:25:40
4. France — Pierre le Corre / Emma Lombardi / Leo Bergere / Cassandre Beaugrand 1:26:47
5. Portugal — Ricardo Batista / Melanie Santos / Vasco Vilaca / Maria Tome 1:27:08
6. Italy — Gianluca Pozzatti / Alice Betto / Alessio Crociani / Verena Steinhauser 1:27:11
7. Switzerland — Max Studer / Julie Derron / Sylvain Fridelance / Cathia Schar 1:27:16
8. Brazil — Miguel Hidalgo / Djenyfer Arnold / Manoel Messias / Vittoria Lopes 1:27:23
9. Spain — Alberto Gonzalez Garcia / Anna Godoy Contreras / Antonio Serrat Seoane / Miriam Casillas Garcia 1:27:30
10. Netherlands — Mitch Kolkman / Maya Kingma / Richard Murray / Rachel Klamer 1:27:37

Photos: World Triathlon