The Olympic mixed relay triathlon in Paris today (5 August) was filled with nail-biting thrills.
After an exceptionally close race, Team GB was originally awarded a silver medal, following a dramatic toe-to-toe photo finish with Team USA. However, they were told just before the medal ceremony that they had actually come third.
Germany secured gold, finishing just one second ahead of the USA and Great Britain, who posted the exact same finish time of 1:25.40 seconds and scored silver and bronze respectively.
Officials reviewed the photo finish after the race and discovered that the USA’s Taylor Knibb had just pipped Great Britain’s Beth Potter to the line by the finest of margins.
Comprising a 300m swim in the River Seine, a flat and fast 7km bike leg and a 1.8km sprint along to Invalides Bridge and back, twice, it had been uncertain as to whether the event would go ahead this morning.
Yesterday evening, officials including representatives from World Triathlon and the International Olympic Committee met to review water tests, which indicated that the water quality at the triathlon site would be within safe limits.
However, last night, Belgium withdrew from the race after one of their athletes, Claire Michel, was hospitalised with an E. coli infection after taking part in the women’s triathlon in the Seine River last Wednesday (31 July).
Due to concerns over water quality in the run up to the mixed relay triathlon, familiarisation swims for the athletes had been cancelled and teams had requested for the race to be delayed to allow for more athlete preparation time.
The race went ahead this morning regardless and delivered nail-biting action from the get-go.
Alex Yee, who won gold in the men’s individual triathlon last week, took on the first leg, leading led Team GB to a three-second lead over Germany before handing over to Georgia Taylor-Brown for the second leg.
Taylor-Brown then increased the British lead to 14 seconds after an impressive swim and cycle, but was caught on the second lap of the run by Germany’s Lisa Tertsch.
Behind by just one second going into the third leg, Sam Dickinson then put in a strong stint to regain the lead by 5 seconds as he handed over to Beth Potter for the final leg.
After a fantastic swim, Potter kept Great Britain in the lead up until the bike leg, where she was overtaken by Laura Lindemann of Germany and American Taylor Knibb – who managed to make up an 18-second deficit.
Potter then managed to close a two-second gap on Knibb and the pair were toe-to-toe as they chased Lindemann to the finish.