Great Britain Wins ITU Mixed Relay World Championships
Team Great Britain asserted themselves as the most successful in Mixed Relay history in Hamburg on Sunday.
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
Team Great Britain asserted themselves as the most successful in Mixed Relay history in Hamburg on Sunday, collecting their third World Championship title on the back of two stellar performances from the Brownlee brothers.
Read the recap from the ITU below:
It means that Great Britain has won half the Mixed Relay world titles on offer so far, after the sixth world championship in the format. In Germany on Saturday, it was a brilliant second leg from Jonathan Brownlee to pull himself back up to the leaders on the bike and then surge on the run to put Vicky Holland into the lead, that helped set-up the final leg, when Alistair Brownlee outsprinted Vincent Luis for the second day in a row. While on Saturday it was to claim his 16th career WTS win, on Sunday Brownlee anchored home a brilliant team effort for Britain to claim gold ahead of the youthful French team.
“It was a great team performance, but Jonny to be honest had the stand-out leg today, that was absolutely phenomenal to get back that deficit, but everybody did great and we are really happy to win it again after last year,” Alistair Brownlee said.
The young French team, containing Audrey Merle and Cassandre Beaugrand, the silver and bronze medallists at the 2014 European Championships and 2013 ITU Junior Men’s World Champion Dorian Coninx, provided a perfect platform for Vincent Luis to anchor home the final run and collect the silver medal.
Behind them, the Hungarian team of Zsofia Kovacs, Tamas Toth, Margit Vanek and Akos Vanek all put in excellent all-round performances to claim a bronze medal. It was Hungary’s first medal at a Mixed Relay World Championships, becoming just the ninth team to reach the podium. Australia finished fourth, with the American team of Kaitlin Donner, Ben Kanute, Gwen Jorgensen and Alan Webb finishing in fifth.
This year marked the sixth edition of the ITU Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championships. Switzerland won the first two editions in 2009 and 2010, before Great Britain triumphed in 2011 and 2012. At home in Hamburg last year, Germany took the title.