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Reigning World Champions Germany claimed Olympic Gold at the Mixed Team Relay in Paris this morning in a race filled with drama and excitement right from the starters gun. In a thrilling race it came right down to the wire in the closing stages for the medals with an epic sprint to the line for the eventual podium finishers of Germany, USA & Great Britain.

With two athletes falling ill before the race even began, the Belgian team were forced to withdraw from the race late last night, whilst Switzerland required a last minute change of team member in order to compete. Both athletes had taken part in the individual races earlier this week, and whilst the water quality in the Seine was questioned again, the water was deemed to be of “acceptable quality” by World Triathlon for today’s spectacular race.

Getting underway at 08:00 local time in France, an impressive swim from Spain’s Alberto Gonzalez Garcia looked to have Spain off to a flying start, only for a penalty to be given, immediately nullifying any advantage gained.  Olympic Gold Medalist Yee of Great Britain and Hellwig of Germany closed down the gap to the Spaniard on the bike quickly, New Zealand’s Silver Medalist Wilde and Switzerlands’s Struder had their work cut out for them to make contact with the group.

As the bike leg came together, so did some of the athletes, resulting in Frenchman Le Corre and New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde having an unfortunate clash, ultimately ending up on the ground. Wilde was able to hop back up on his bike pretty quickly but Le Corre suffered a mechanical with his chain which left France on the back foot very early on in the race, this was undoubtedly a decisive moment for the race favourites, France who were literally chasing the race from that moment.  Wilde finished his run with blood covering face. At the front of the race the opening relay leg saw Great Britain narrowly ahead of Germany, with Switzerland chasing in 3^rd handing over to silver medalist Julie Derron for the second leg, the USA  were as far back as 10^th at the end of the first leg.

In the second leg, it was time for the women to take centre stage, Georgia Taylor-Brown looked to extend Great Britain’s lead on swim then further extending the lead by pushing hard on the bike which she rode as a solo 7km TT.Out on the run course Germany’s Lisa Tertsch produced a stunning run to reel Taylor-Brown back in and hand over to fellow countryman Lasse Luhrs in 1st place. Taylor Spivey dragged the US further up the overall rankings with an impressive relay split, with Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal bringing Mexico back into consideration with the fastest split of the second leg.

As the third leg got underway and the race passed half way, the excitement continued to build, as the men took on their race, Lasse Luhrs of Germany and Sam Dickson of Great Britain worked well together to keep their lead on the bike, whilst Vilaca of Portugal was the driving force for the chase group. Dickson proved the stronger of the two on the run with a late surge giving Great Britain’s Beth Potter a 5 second advantage for the final leg of the relay.

Into the closing stages of the relay and it looked like Germany’s Lindemann appeared to close the gap on the swim, however it remained at 7 seconds as they entered T1. The pair  of Potter and Lindemann were also now being chased by the formidable and super fast Taylor Knibb of the USA, renowned for her power on the bike.Knibb managed to bridge to Lindemann on the first lap of the bike, with the two working together throughout the second lap to catch Potter the race was really beginning to heat up. Potter managed to get the best of the three as they left T2, with over a minute to the chasers as France’s Olympic Champion Cassandre Beaugrand carried the hosts back to 4th.

Out on the run, it looked like Potter was going to fall off the back of Lindemann and Knibb, she was a few metres back when Germany’s Lindemann picked up the pace to try and outrun Knibb and Potter as they raced down the blue carpet. However, Beth Potter found another gear in the closing metres of the race with a late surge and sprint to the line it was Germany who broke the tape and  it looked like GB would take the silver medal and the USA the bronze, however, the sprint was so close it required a photo finish. The final result saw the US claim silver by the smallest of margins as GB took home bronze. Hosts France finished just a minute behind for 4^th following a super race by the Olympic Gold Medalist Cassandre Beaugrand, Portugal produced a strong race to round out the top 5 across the line in what was as anticipated a fast. frenzied and fantastic race in the French Capital.

Full results of the event are available on the link HERE