The first mixed relay Olympic race saw Jess Learmonth, Jonny Brownlee, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Alex Yee win gold for Team GB in Tokyo.
Each of the quartet completed a 300m swim, 6.8km bike and 2km run around Odaiba Marine Park. At the front of the field from the start, they battled with various nations throughout the race to add gold to two individual silver medals in Japan.
Starting an hour later than the individual races at 7:30am local time, Learmonth was up against the likes of bronze medallist from the women’s individual race, Katie Zaferes (USA), Maya Kingma (NED), Leonie Periault (FRA) and Emma Jeffcoat (AUS) on the first leg and was first out of the water.
Across the bike leg, Learmonth was joined by the American and Dutch athletes along with German Laura Lindemann as the quartet built up a 26 second lead over the chasing pack. The Brit and Zaferes pulled clear on the two-lap run before being reeled in at the handover by Lindemann (GER).
Jonas Schomburg (GER) hit the water first for the second leg, quickly followed by Kevin McDowell (USA), Brownlee and Marco van der Stel (NED).
Working well together, at the end of the first bike lap their lead was over thirty seconds. Marten Van Riel (BEL), Dorian Coninx (FRA) and Italian Gianluca Pozzatti were the next three back, pushing themselves to close up on the leaders.
Back at the front, Brownlee showed his strength to stride ahead across the first of the two run laps. McDowell (USA) tried to stay with him, but the two-time Olympic medallist stormed clear to hand over to Georgia Taylor-Brown with a nine second advantage over American Taylor Knibb.
Coming out of the water, this lead was 23 seconds as Knibb was caught by Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA), with the American and French athletes in pursuit of the silver medallist from the women’s individual race on the bike.
Riding alone at the front, Taylor-Brown maintained a lead across the bike leg with the American moving clear of Beaugrand (FRA) and cutting the deficit to the leader to eleven seconds.
Having showed her run strength to claim silver earlier in the week, Taylor-Brown once again demonstrated how good a runner she is to hand over to Yee with a 21 second gap to Morgan Pearson (USA) for the final swim, bike, run.
Moving from one silver medallist to another in the gold medal position, Yee’s lead was reduced to 17 seconds over Pearson (USA) and 19 seconds over Vincent Luis (FRA) who set off on their bikes together behind the Brit.
Two-time world champion Luis (FRA) attacked from behind to try and chase down Yee, leaving the American and catching Yee at the start of the second bike lap. Moving into T2 side-by-side, the first ever Olympic mixed relay gold medal would be decided on the 2km run.
Renowned for his running ability, the British athlete left transition with a five second lead having racked his bike and put on his trainers, a lead which he extended throughout the first lap to eleven seconds but now over Pearson of the USA.
Lap two saw him stride clear to win a second medal of Tokyo 2020 for himself and Taylor-Brown, a first Olympic gold for Brownlee and a maiden Olympic medal for Learmonth, all three of whom greeted him at the finish area to start the celebrations.
Pearson (USA) crossed the line 14 seconds back for silver, with Luis a further nine seconds behind to claim bronze for France.
Team reaction
Speaking about completing the set of gold, silver and bronze medals, Jonny Brownlee said: “It’s absolutely amazing. If someone told me at the start of my career that I would have an Olympic gold, silver and bronze, I definitely would have taken that. It will probably be my last ever Olympic race. I am saying probably now because I felt alright on that run.
"It’s absolutely special, to do it with these guys [the team] it was amazing. Today, relays are about not making mistakes, being calm under pressure and I think we did all of that. From start to finish it, it was absolutely incredible.”
“We’ve been pretty good at doing well in triathlon and hopefully that continues.”
“Very very special. It’s obviously slightly different to ceremonies I have been at before. London 2012, with 1million people in Hyde Park and I delayed that one by half an hour by being ill afterwards. Rio again, bigger crowd. But this was special in its own way, being with these guys and being at the top of that podium, it’s the first and probably last time I will be there.”
Having set the team off to a flying start, Jess Learmonth commented: “I felt the pressure going out first, especially with these guys, I didn’t want to let the team down. I just tried to do all the little things right.”
“I honestly don’t believe it. It’s so nice to be a part of it. It’s hard work, painful, but it’s all worth it.”
Reflecting on having added gold to her individual silver, Georgia Taylor-Brown said: “My first Olympic Games and I am going away with two medals, I couldn’t have even dreamt about this. It’s pretty incredible. Just to end it with the team as well after such a weird year with Covid, it seems more special.”
“We’re Olympic champions aren’t we, it’s more special than the silver. It’s amazing to do it with the team around you, it makes it more special. There has been more excitement to think about crying.”
Taking the tape and the win was Alex Yee, who added: “This is pretty special. Watching Jonny [Brownlee] and all the guys in the road race in 2012 lit a fire for me. For me to come to a Games two years later and to come here and do this, I could have never imagined this and it shows it’s possible for anyone to dare to dream.”
“These guys pulled out the perfect leg, they put me in such a brilliant position and I had to do my best to stay there. It’s pretty surreal.”
“That was just pain. I just wanted to go out hard at the start and not look back."
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