Georgia Taylor-Brown continued her return from injury by finishing second at World Triathlon Cup Lievin, adding to the bronze medal she won in Portugal the week before.
One of three British women competing in France, Taylor-Brown started the day by coming first in her qualifying race ahead of the USA’s Gia Sereno and France’s Leonie Periault. Jessica Fullagar also came through her qualifying race with a fourth-place finish, crossing the line just two seconds behind heat winner Marlene Gomez-Goggel of Germany. Vicky Holland’s day ended at the first hurdle as, despite winning her race, she was disqualified for not serving a penalty.
Fullagar was in semi-final one and booked her place in the final by coming third behind Periault and Germany’s Laura Lindemann. In the second semi-final Belgium’s Jolien Vermeylen was the winner as Taylor-Brown joined British teammate Fullagar in the final with a third-place finish.
The final saw a close race with Lindemann breaking clear on the last lap to claim top spot on the podium, while Taylor-Brown held off American Gwen Jorgensen to pick up the silver medal. Further back Fullagar, who had been in contention heading out of T2, dropped off the pace on the 1km run to finish 12th.
In the men’s race Sam Dickinson finished seventh and was the only Brit to make the final.
Five Brits were in action across the six qualifying races with four of them making it through to the semi-final stages. Harry Leleu was the fastest of anyone across the heats to top the standings in his qualifying race, while Jack Willis was also comfortably through to the semi-finals with second place in his qualifying race. The duo were joined in the semi-finals by Christopher Perham and Dickinson, who both finished third in their respective races. Hugo Milner’s fourth place finish in his race saw him enter the repechages, where he again finished fourth missing out on a place in the semi-finals.
In the first semi-final Dickinson crossed the line in second place, just behind Germany’s Tim Hellwig, to book his slot in the final. Teammate Perham finished seventh and entered the B final. Willis joined Perham in the B final with a seventh-place finish in the next semi-final as did Leleu who was sixth in the third and final men’s semi-final.
The men’s final saw Norwegian Vetle Bergsvik Thorn on the top step of the podium after breaking clear to claim the win. Dickinson was six seconds behind him and finished in seventh. Leleu finished between French duo Nathan Grayel (first) and Yanis Sequin (third) to take second place in the B final, which meant he finished 14th overall. Perham was fourth in the B final and 16th overall while Jack Willis ended the day 20th overall after coming eighth in the B final.
Images: World Triathlon | by_wout
