The relay team of Gwen Jorgensen, Ben Kanute, Kirsten Kasper and Joe Maloy earned the United States its first gold medal in the ITU Mixed Relay World Championships Sunday in Hamburg, Germany.

Each team member completed a 300 meter swim, a 6.6 kilometer bike leg and a 1.6 kilometer run to finish in 1 hour 20 minutes and 29 seconds to earn a 29 seconds margin of victory over teams from Australia and Germany, who battled in a sprint finish to win silver and bronze respectively.

Jorgensen held her own with the swim and bike, then used her famous run speed to hand off to Ben Kanute with an 11-seconds lead over France’s Cassandre Beaugrand, 15 seconds over Germany’s Laura Lindemann and 26 seconds over Russia’s Anastasia Abrosimova with Japan , Brazil, South Africa and Great Britain arriving in slam-bang order within 30-35 seconds.

Aurelien Raphael of France erased Kanute’s 11-second lead on the 300-meter swim, but Kanute charged away on a solo surge on the 6.6k bike leg and 1.6k run to finish his second leg in a race-best 19:08 split – 1 second faster than Australia’s already far-behind Jacob Birtwhistle - that gave the U.S. an approximate 45 seconds lead as he handed off to Kirsten Kasper.

“I just went as hard as I could,” said Kanute. “On the bike I was feeling really good and me and [Aurelien] Raphael weren’t working the best together so I punched I through a few corners and found myself in front.”

When Kasper hit the water, she increased her lead to 1 minute, then held off a group of six women - including Emma Jackson of Australia, Jodie Stimpson of Great Britain, Hanna Philippin of Germany, Gillian Sanders of South Africa, Audrey Merle of France and Alexandra Razarenova of Russia - working together on the bike and pushing hard on the run. Still Kasper maintained nearly a minute lead as she handed off to Joe Maloy for the final leg.

While Maloy’s 8th-best 19:43 final leg gave back approximately 15 seconds to the chasers, it was enough to maintain a 29 seconds margin of victory at the finish.

The big drama was the finish line dash for the podium as Olympics-bound Ryan Bailie of Australia out sprinted Gregor Bucholz of Germany for the silver in equal times 1:20:58, edging out the final surge of Anthony Pujades for 4th place France by one second.

Maloy reveled in the team spirit after crossing the line into the arms of his teammates. “The key word is ‘team,’” said Maloy. “I crossed the line, but we shook hands in between legs of the relay and I just could not have done it without these guys. We compete all the time individually, so it is nice to group up because there is a lot of stuff behind the scenes with camaraderie.”

This was the first gold and second medal for the U.S. team, since the mixed team format was introduced in 2009. The U.S. won a bronze medal in 2013.

ITU Mixed Relay World Championship
Hamburg, Germany
July 17, 2016
4x S 300m / B 6.6k / R 1.6k

Results

1. USA – Gwen Jorgensen, Ben Kanute, Kirsten Kasper, Joe Maloy 1:20:29

2. Australia – Charlotte McShane, Jacob Birtwhistle, Emma Jackson, Ryan Bailie 1:20:58

3. Germany – Laura Lindemann, Jonathan Zipf, Hanna Philippin, Gregor Bucholz 1:20:58

4. France – Cassandre Beaugrand, Aurelien Raphael, Audrey Merle, Anthony Pujades 1:20:59

5. Russia – Anastasia Abrosimova, Igor Polyanskiy, Alexandra Razarenova, Dmitry Polyanskiy 1:21:06

6. South Africa – Mari Rabe, Henri Schoeman, Gillian Sanders, Wian Sullwald 1:21:08

7. Great Britain – Lucy Hall, Thomas Bishop, Jodie Stimpson, Adam Bowden 1:21:10

8. Italy – Annamaria Mazzetti, Gianluca Pozzatti, Charlotte Bonin, Alessandro Fabian 1:22:47