World Triathlon

On Sunday morning, 4 August, the Pontoon Draw for the Paris 2024 Olympic Triathlon Mixed Relay took place, the teams choosing their starting spot on the pontoon for the huge final triathlon action of these Games on 5 August.

Even with the swim trimmed right back to a short, sharp 300m to get each leg underway, the start spot could be critical, and it was a coach from each of the 16 nations lining up who selected, in order of Relay Olympic Ranking. Full start lists can be found here.

That left defending champions Great Britain to pick first, opting for the far left of the pontoon, World Champions Germany taking spot three, hosts France electing to go between the two and New Zealand in spot four next to Switzerland. For those four nations, all six individual medallists are set to take part, a huge task for the other nations to put themselves in relay medal contention?

There remains a window for changes to the final composition of the teams up to 5.45am on race day, but the provisional lists throw up some mouth-watering match ups across the four legs.

Yee vs Wilde part deux?

First up the prospect of last Wednesday’s Olympic Champion Alex Yee and silver medallist Hayden Wilde going shoulder-to-shoulder once again in the hope of setting their teams on a path to more glory.

It was Yee who brought home the gold in Tokyo, but with that task charged with the women for the Paris Olympic cycle, he now switches to scene-setter for GB. Wilde will hope he can detonate another all-in run and hand over a gap to Ainsley Thorpe, Yee looking set to tag off to another Tokyo 2020 star Georgia Taylor-Brown. 

Meanwhile, France currently call upon Pierre Le Corre for their first leg. The man who finished one spot behind bronze medalist teammate Leo Bergere on Wednesday doesn’t have a weak segment and doesn’t know anything other than all-in, gutsy racing and he could set the tone for magic from France.

Could Beaugrand make history again in Paris?

And magic for France may mean the dream scenario of Cassandre Beaugrand coming over the bridge with a lead ready to send Paris wild for the second time in less than a week after her individual race fireworks. As it stands, she would pick up from Bergere for the anchor leg, silver medallist Beth Potter will do so from Samuel Dickinson for GB and for the current World Champions, Laura Lindemann will hope that she can steer Germany home for the gold.

Elsewhere, women’s silver medallist Julie Derron goes second for Switzerland as they mount a challenge for a first Olympic Mixed Relay medal. That second leg also sees Lisa Tertsch go for Germany, Taylor Spivey for USA, Emma Lombardi for France and Maya Kingma for Netherlands.

Alongside Dickinson and Bergere, some huge third-leg battles should include Portugal’s Vasco Vilaça up against Kristian Blummenfelt for Norway, German Lasse Luhrs, Australia’s Matthew Hauser, New Zealand’s Dylan McCullough, USA’s Morgan Pearson and Switzerland’s Simon Westermann.

Mouthwatering indeed. Tune in at 8am on Monday 5 August. Check local listings for details.