Team France round out Sunderland WTCS weekend with a third gold

Team France were the ones to beat and, unsurprisingly, and despite a 10sec penalty, no one could today at the Sunderland WTCS mixed relay.

Fielding both individual champions from yesterday’s races, Pierre Le Corre and Cassandre Beaugrand, as well as the women’s silver medalist Emma Lombardi, their victory was rarely in doubt.

With Olivia Mathias out with illness, Jess Fullager stepped in to join Beth Potter, Max Stapley and Barclay Izzard in Team GB. Despite their relative inexperience, they had an impressive home race to win silver.

Norway rounded out the podium with bronze after New Zealand were handed a late penalty for a transition infringement, relegating them to fourth.

What happened on the first leg?

First out of the one-lap 300m swim was Team USA’s Chase McQueen, with France (Tom Richard) down in seventh and missing the lead pack.

GB’s Barclay Izzard had a blistering swim and T1, however, to make the initial lead group of seven for the two-lap 7.7km bike, joining the likes of Germany (Lasse Lührs), New Zealand (Tayler Reid) and Portugal (Vasco Vilaça).

But they could do little to hold off the chasers, including the French team, forming a large group of 15 on the final lap.

Onto the two-lap 1.7km run and it was Norway (Vetle Bergsvik Thorn) to the front along with GB (Izzard) and France (Richard).

But Switzerland (Max Studer) and Portugal (Vilaça) were also keen to have a crack, and so it was that Portugal, New Zealand and Switzerland were the first three to hand over to their respective teammates.

What happened on the second leg?

Portugal (Melanie Santos) managed to maintain the lead at the end of the second swim leg, but France’s Lombardi was just behind in second.

Also making the initial lead pack of six was GB’s Potter, who had fresher legs having not raced yesterday. Quickly becoming a four, alongside Spain (Miriam Casillas García) and New Zealand (Ainsley Thorpe), they battled the tight, twisty course to stay ahead.

But by T2, that group had swelled to 10, including US legend Gwen Jorgensen, who’s keen to attract the attention of the US Olympic selectors for the Paris mixed relay squad.

News came in just before T2 that France had occurred a 10sec penalty for swim conduct, which any member of the team could take before the finish. To make matters worse, Lombardi also fell over Norway’s Lotte Miller leaving T2.

As Potter shot to the front, so too did Jorgensen, who passed Lombardi for third at the halfway point and remained there until the next handover.

What happened on the third leg?

GB’s Stapley led out of the third swim, with a line of four athletes in his wake – US, Switzerland, France (Le Corre) and Portugal.

Stapley did a brilliant job of keeping the quartet at bay for the entire first bike leg, pulling out an impressive 10sec lead.

The chasing pack’s lack of cohesion also meant New Zealand (Hayden Wilde), Spain and Norway were able to catch up.

By T2, the gap was 5secs, allowing NZ’s Wilde to swiftly catch up and overtake. But Stapley remained in second throughout the first leg, only being overtaken towards the end of the second lap as Le Corre found some late speed to move France into the runner’s-up spot.

What happened on the fourth leg?

And lucky for France, arguably one of the world’s best racers right now, Beaugrand was there to pick up the anchor leg, taking the place of her teammate Léonie Périault due to injury sustained in the individual race yesterday.

With eight seconds ahead of New Zealand (Brea Roderick), the French powerhouse just needed another two to take the team’s penalty and sustain the lead.

GB’s Fullager, meanwhile, had a great swim to hit T1 in third place, before working with Broderick to pull up to Beaugrand and build a 25sec lead over the chasers.

By T2, the trio’s lead was down to 22secs over Norway’s Solveig Løvseth, who’d raced the entire bike leg solo.

Beaugrand naturally shot out of transition in the lead, looking in control at all times even though the penalty loomed large.

But the French squad had raced and timed it beautifully, Beaugrand stopping in the sin bin before being released still comfortably in the lead to cruise to her second gold-medal-winning victory of the weekend.

Fullager held on for a phenomenal silver for Team GB, while Norway were handed a surprise bronze – Roderick being handed an agonising 10sec penalty for missing her T2 slot (she went to Australia’s instead!).

Of the nine medals up for grabs this weekend France took home five of them, setting the home team up perfectly for the Paris Olympics Test Event in August.

Top image credit: Petko Beier/World Triathlon