With a Mixed Relay Triathlon added to the 2020 Summer Olympic program at Tokyo in 2020, the ITU has offered more mixed relay events during the 2019 and early 2020 seasons. While the WTS Nottingham Mixed Relay event was not held in conjunction with a WTS individual event, Nottingham offered 14 nations the opportunity to test several next-tier triathletes in the slam-bang action-packed team format.
Due to heavy rainfall in the Trent River which resulted in water quality issues, the swim was canceled and the event was switched to a duathlon format, favoring top runners. As a result, each member of the 4-person relay team, comprised of Leg 1 women, Leg 2 men, Leg 3 women and Leg 4 men, completed a 1500 meter run, 7.5 kilometer bike leg and 1500 meter run.
Due to the switch to a duathlon, teams received only 75 percent of the usual ranking points for Olympic qualifying. This season the ITU Mixed Relay World Championship will be held in Hamburg, Germany on July 7.
After the tumult and shouting were over. Team Great Britain prevailed by 42 seconds over the runners-up, Team Switzerland, and by 50 seconds over 3rd place Team France.
Under unrelenting rain, Georgia Taylor-Brown of Great Britain, a week after her breakthrough WTS win at Leeds, jumped to an early lead in the first run, then poured it on during the 7 kilometer bike leg to arrive at her transition with a 23-seconds lead on Emma Jeffcoat of Australia, with Switzerland, Canada, Italy, Netherlands, France and Germany hot on her heels. After her second 1500-meter run Taylor-Brown handed off the baton to fellow Brit Ben Dijkstra with a 30-seconds lead.
In the full-throttle push, Renee Tomlin of the U.S. suffered severe cramps in the final 1500-meter run, losing 2 minutes and dropping the highly ranked U.S. team out of contention. In addition, Japan’s Jure Ide lost more than 4 minutes.
During the second leg, Dijkstra took advantage of his bike handling skills to navigate the rain soaked 180-degree corners with ease and increased Great Britain’s lead to 36 seconds before handing off to teammate Sophie Coldwell. During Coldwell’s turn, Switzerland’s Alissa Koning sliced through the rest of the field to advance to 3rd place, while France’s Leonie Periault kept the pressure on to maintain the second spot. Behind them, Italy, Canada and Germany worked hard to stay in range of a possible podium. Without hope of a podium, Tamara Gorman of the U.S. gave her all to advance from 13th to 10th with one leg to go.
When Coldwell handed off to Alex Yee of Great Britain, the gold seemed secure since Yee is one of the WTS circuit’s fastest runners and benefited mightily from skipping the swim. With a split of 4:16 for the first 1500 meter run and 4:26 for the final run, Yee finished Great Britain’s relay in 1:23:13 with a 42 seconds margin of victory over the Swiss team and 50 seconds over the 3rd place French team.
The U.S. squad finished 10th, 3:57 behind the winners.
Nottingham WTS Mixed Relay
June 16, 2018
Mixed Relay Course: Modified to a duathlon due to water conditions
4 x R 1.5k (1 lap) B 7k (2 laps) R 1.5k (1 lap)
Team Results
1. Great Britain Total 1:23:13 Leg 1 21:30 Leg 2 19:40 Leg 3 22:10 Leg 4 19:51
2. Switzerland Total 1:23:55 Leg 1 22:03 Leg 2 19:48 Leg 3 22:07 Leg 4 19:54
3. France Total 1:24:03 Leg 1 21:56 Leg 2 19:50 Leg 3 22:08 Leg 4 20:07
4. Canada Total 1:24:25 Leg 1 21:57 Leg 2 20:05 Leg 3 22:05 Leg 4 20:17
5. Germany Total 1:24:28 Leg 1 22:06 Leg 2 19:39 Leg 3 22:27 Leg 4 20:14
6. Italy Total 1:24:49 Leg 1 21:59 Leg 2 19:55 Leg 3 22:07 Leg 4 20:46
7. New Zealand Total 1:24:55 Leg 1 23:02 Leg 2 19:23 Leg 3 22:30 Leg 4 19:59
8. Australia Total 1:25:17 Leg 1 22:06 Leg 2 20:01 Leg 3 23:08 Leg 4 20:00
9. Netherlands Total 1:25:55 Leg 1 22:30 Leg 2 20:32 Leg 3 22:31 Leg 4 20:21
10. United States Total 1:27:10 Leg 1 24:13 Leg 2 20:42 Leg 3 22:13 Leg 4 20:01
11. Mexico Total 1:28:19 Leg 1 23:27 Leg 2 20:49 Leg 3 23:14 Leg 4 20:48
12. Belgium Total 1:29:15 Leg 1 23:15 Leg 2 20:39 Leg 3 23:42 Leg 4 21:37
13. Spain Total 1:30:03 Leg 1 23:24 Leg 2 20:52 Leg 3 24:49 Leg 4 20:57
14. Japan Total 1:32:25 Leg 1 26:29 Leg 2 21:38 Leg 3 22:54 Leg 4 21:22
