USA round off Montreal WTCS event with Mixed Relay Win
The USA Mixed Relay Team of Taylor Spivey, Seth Rider, Kirsten Kasper and Chase McQueen won gold in the mixed relay at the World Triathlon Championship Series Montreal on Sunday having never before competed together.
U.S. last won gold in the event at the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Series Nottingham in June 2018. Kasper was part of that team and the one that won the 2016 World Championships title, but this was the first mixed relay win for Spivey, Rider and McQueen at this level.
This week-end will have felt extra special for Taylor Spivey coming away with a Team Gold and an individual Bronze after her shock non-selection for the Olympic Team USA.
The USA team going into this event was completely different than the team that claimed sliver at last month’s Tokyo Olympics. With no GB Olympic Gold medal team in the event the clear favourites were Olympic Bronze medalists France with their men having taken all the podium spots in the individual Montreal eliminator final.
However, for reason unclear, they ended up withdrawing from the relay race. Sunday was the final day of an exhausting weekend of racing for the French triathletes. This included as many as two super-sprint qualification races on Friday and up to three super-sprint final stages on Saturday. One would suspect it was just one race to many for the French.
That left nine nations to compete for the Mixed Relay Gold and everything to play for with each teams four athletes racing a 300-meter swim, 6.6-kilometer bike and 1.9-kilometer run in the traditional female-male-female-male format.
The first three legs of the race saw the teams of USA, New Zealand and Italy battle it out for the medals as they dominated the rest of the field. And it all came down to the final leg where USA’s McQueen competing in his first mixed relay at this level, had the race of his life. At the hand over and sitting in third spot he made up the deficit on New Zealand and Italy with a strong swim.
Out of T1 and onto the bike McQueen completed the bike course two seconds ahead of his rivals going into the run. Into the run and McQueen soon took a 5 second lead and never looked back until he crossed the finishing line to take the win.
USA took Gold in 01:25:27
United States (Taylor Spivey, Seth Rider, Kirsten Kasper, Chase McQueen),
NEW ZEALAND took Silver in 01:25:32
New Zealand (Nicole van der Kaay, Dylan McCullough, Ainsley Thorpe, Saxon Morgan),
ITALY took Bronze in 01:25:46 (and their first World Triathlon mixed relay medal)
Italy (Beatrice Mallozzi, Gianluca Pozzatti, Alice Betto, Alessandro Fabian)
Full Results can be found here:
The 2021 World Triathlon Championship Finals will close the season next Saturday, Aug. 21, with the elite men’s and women’s races in Edmonton, Alberta, while Bermuda will host the 2021 World Championships for both super-sprint and mixed relay, Oct. 15-17.
