USA Triathlon Announces Mixed Relay World Championship Team

The world’s fastest triathletes will head to Hamburg, Germany for the 2013 ITU World Triathlon Series, the sixth of eight stops on the WTS circuit. This weekend will feature a special twist with the ITU Mixed Relay Team World Championships taking place on Sunday, the day after the individual action has wrapped up. Each team will be made up of two female athletes and two male, and each must complete a super-sprint triathlon before tagging their teammate to start the next leg. In Hamburg, the course will consist of a 300m swim, 6.6km bike and a 1.6km run.

The United States has had little success at the team event to this point, but it looks like Team USA is trying a new strategy for the 2013 race. With two women ranked in the top 20 in the world right now, the women’s picks for the team are pretty straightforward. Two-time WTS winner Gwen Jorgensen will be joined by Olympic fourth-place finisher Sarah Groff.

The picks on the men’s side are much less traditional. Cameron Dye and Ben Kanute will round out the team. Both are especially strong on the swim and the bike, and won’t compete in the individual event on Saturday. Dye is one of the top non-drafting Olympic-distance athletes in the world, while Kanute is an up-and-comer who has shown serious promise with wins at USAT’s Collegiate Nationals (both draft-legal and non-drafting races) and a 14th-place finish at the WTS Kitzbuehel race two weeks ago.

In Saturday’s individual sprint race, the United States will be represented by Jorgensen, Groff, Katie Hursey, Kaitlin Donner and Erin Jones.
For the men, it will be Matt Chrabot, Joe Maloy, Greg Billington and William Huffman.

Learn more about the race at Hamburg.triathlon.org.

PHOTOS: 2009 & 2010 ITU Team World Championships

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