Men’s Event
A false start caused drama at the onset of the race. It was Vincent Luis (France) who led at the end of the first lap. At the end of the swimming, it was still Luis who came out of the water first ahead of Dmitry Polyanskiy (Russia), Jonas Schomburg (Germany) and Henry Schoeman (South Africa). Javier Gomez (Spain), Alex Yee (Great Britain) and Aaron Royle (Australia) all struggled in the swim. A lead group of nine separated themselves on the opening lap. A larger chase group with over twenty cyclists tried to reel them in. By the end of lap four, they had pulled them back in, making a large group of 28. Eventually, it morphed into an even larger group. Andrea Salvisberg (Switzerland) was allowed to take a small lead and by the end of the cycle had an edge of fourteen seconds over a large group of runners. The runners soon caught up and led by Alex Yee (Great Britain) a smaller group began to form with Mario Mola (Spain) and Gomez struggling to keep pace. Soon a group of nine emerged with Vincent Luis (France) another favourite struggling to keep up. Yee would continue to inject bits of pace and it was soon a group of six. Kristian Blummenfelt (Norway) injected his own turn of pace and separated into a group of three with Yee and Hayden Wilde (New Zealand) just creating a gap from Jonathan Brownlee (Great Britain). Blummenfelt took a big burst to get away from the other pair of leaders which Yee could not follow. Celebrating over the final 50m, he took an incredible victory in the heat by 11 seconds over Yee. Marten Van Riel (Belgium) took fourth ahead of Brownlee.
🥇Kristian Blummenfelt 🇳🇴
🥈Alex Yee 🇬🇧
🥉Hayden Wilde 🇳🇿
Women’s Event
The weather was nowhere near as appealing for the women’s event, with rain and wind making it a tough competition for some competitors. At the end of the first lap, it was Jessica Learmonth (Great Britain) leading a spread-out field ahead of Vittoria Lopes (Brazil) and Katie Zeferes (United States). Learmonth continued to press, ending the swim with a select group of just seven. No other competitor was within 40 seconds of Learmonth and she was only 20 seconds slower than the men’s event swim from the previous day. The other four in the group were Laura Lindemann (Germany), Summer Rappaport (United States), Flora Duffy (Bermuda) and Georgia Taylor-Brown (Great Britain). By the end of the second cycle lap, it seemed clear it would be between these seven as the chase group was over a minute down. They soon dropped Rappaport who had struggled on the cycle, falling back 37 seconds and leaving a group of six. In the fifth lap, it was Lopez who was dropped. On the final lap, Taylor-Brown suffered a flat tyre which left her 22 seconds down on the front four. The chase group has made small inroads with Nicola Spirig (Switzerland) cutting the gap down to 61 seconds. Duffy started quickly on the run, opening a small gap to Zeferes with a bigger gap back to Lindemann, Learmonth and Taylor-Brown. Taylor-Brown had soon overtaken Learmonth and Lindemann but remained behind Zeferes with a similar gap to Duffy. By halfway on the run, Duffy had further increased the gap to 47 seconds to Zeferes, who led Taylor-Brown by five seconds. It was a further 38 seconds back to Lindemann who had seven seconds on Learmonth. The gap kept increasing Duffy leading by over a minute with Taylor-Brown passing Zeferes as they began the last lap. Spirig had caught up with Lindemann and Learmonth to start the final lap in fourth. It would finish that way for the top three, with Flora Duffy taking the first-ever gold medal for Bermuda.
🥇Flora Duffy 🇧🇲
🥈Georgia Taylor-Brown 🇬🇧
🥉Katie Zeferes 🇺🇸
Mixed Relay
Great Britain and Jessica Learmonth were first out the water ahead of Netherlands and United States. Those three were joined by Germany
in forming a breakaway on the bike. Zeferes and Learmonth would pull away from the other two on the running leg until a massive sprint from Lindemann saw Germany overtake Britain. In the second leg, the four managed to keep a gap ahead of the chasers. It was a 26-second advantage heading into the running phase. A lap in and Brownlee had created an edge, being followed by the United States. At the transition phase, he handed Taylor-Brown a gap of nine seconds over the United States, with Netherlands and Germany a further 13 seconds back. When Taylor-Brown finished her swim, she had a 23-second edge, but France had made their way back into third place ahead of Germany and Netherlands. France began to drift back into the cycle section with Knibb closing the gap to Taylor-Brown to only 11 seconds. Another 25 seconds back to Germany, Belgium, France and Netherlands battling for the bronze. As they handed over for the final leg, Britain led by 21 seconds to the United States who were 12 ahead of France, establishing a 20-second edge on the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The gap had closed after the swim, leading by only 17 seconds ahead of the United States, with France a further two seconds back. A terrific attack by Vincent Luis on the bike saw him cycle away from the American. He tried to use the same attack against Yee but could not drop the young Brit who grabbed onto his wheel. As the pace slightly slowed, transitioning into the running phase, the United States had closed the gap, just nine seconds behind the British leader with Luis in-between. It was a sensational first lap on the run from Yee, opening an eleven-second gap as Luis began to slow, having put so much into the race. Yee took the victory by fourteen seconds.
🥇Great Britain 🇬🇧
🥈United States 🇺🇸
🥉France 🇫🇷
Comments