Originally published at: Australia Takes Mixed Relay World Championship in Dramatic Sprint - Slowtwitch News
Chase McQueen starts the swim. Photos: Kevin Mackinnon
If you’ve never seen a mixed relay, you really need to. Especially if you ever get the chance to watch an event like the Mixed Relay World Championship, especially if the host city is Hamburg. As we reported yesterday, WTCS Hamburg, which took place for the 24th time this year, has a storied history in the sport. The event routinely attracts stellar fields, and the courses are all lined with thousands and thousands of spectators. The Hamburg Triathlon is also one of the world’s largest triathlon races, too, which just adds to all the fun.
The mixed relay includes teams of four members and, in Hamburg, each completed a 300 m swim, a two-lap 6.6 km bike and a two-lap 1.6 km run. After a four-year stretch of having the men lead off leading into the Paris Games, the next four years see the women start and taking the third leg, with the men going second and fourth. The important thing to also remember about the mixed relay is that it offers a guaranteed way for countries to get four athletes into the Olympic Games, all based on world championship wins, top rankings and a final qualifying race.
Matt Hauser signals to his waiting teammates as they celebrate a world championship performance.
This weekend will definitely go down as the Matt Hauser show as he used his impressive run talent to pull clear with a half-mile to go in yesterday’s sprint, then followed that up with another running masterpiece, pulling clear of France’s Dorian Conninx to give his team the world title.
First Leg
They’re off.
Off the start Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes was able to string things out leaving Great Britain’s Beth Potter and American Taylor Spivey about 13 seconds back, but eventually all the main players would get up to the front as France’s Leonie Periault, fresh off her stellar individual win on Saturday, pushing the pace at the front. In the end Belgium’s Jolien Vermeylen would take the sprint to the line just ahead of France, with Germany’s Lisa Tertsch handing off six seconds back.
Periault pushes the pace at the front.
Leg 2
The dives into the water for the start of the men’s legs make for some fun photos and this year’s race in Hamburg was no different as the athletes played things up for the huge crowds. Belgium’s Joris Bessie took things out just ahead of France’s Yaris Seguin, while American Chase McQueen remained in the mix. Portugal’s Vasco Vilaça managed to bring the second chase group up to the front as the lead group swelled to 15.
Germany’s Lasse Priester used the energy from the crowds to pull ahead in the end.
Leg 3
Great Britain’s Olivia Mathias used a strong swim to take the lead at the start of the third leg …
But Aussie Emma Jeffcoat was close behind.
Ackerlund was also close enough to get onto the lead pack of 11 by the end of the bike.
Surprisingly Cassandre Beaugrand would eventually go to the back of the tight group of 11 that formed on the bike, and then the Olympic gold medalist had a decidedly slow transition, coming out of T2 well behind the rest of the group.
Leg 4
It was time for more big air as the final athletes hit the water.
By the end of the swim on the final leg Matt Hauser had put Australia back in position – he was down to seven seconds back at the end of the swim and by the time things settled on the bike he was in the lead group with Switzerland (Simon Westermann), Great Britain (Connor Bentley), Germany (Henry Graf) and France (Conninx).
American John Reed found himself chasing on the bike with Hungary’s Csongor Lehmann, with Canadian Charles Paquet desperately trying to get up to join them.
Conninx led the way out of T2 and pulled Hauser clear of the rest of the group, making it a France vs Australia duel for the world title. There was no touching Hauser as he once again posted the day’s fastest run to lead the Aussies to the title.
That set up a big sprint down the blue carpet, which Paquet mastered to put Canada in seventh, leaving the US to eighth.
You can see the full results here.