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Triathlon Canada names Mixed Relay team for Hamburg

Mislawchuk, Brown, Kretz and Lepage to race the Mixed Relay. Brown will be the sole Canadian racing the WTS race in Hamburg.

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Mislawchuk and Lepage racing together

On Monday, Triathlon Canada announced the four-member team that will race at the Mixed Relay event at ITU World Triathlon Hamburg, July 15th – 16th. Mixed Relays, considered one of the most thrilling and spectator-friendly formats of triathlon, was recently added to the schedule for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Canadian champions Tyler Mislawchuk and Joanna Brown will be joined by Olympian Amelie Kretz and Alexis Lepage. Brown will be the sole Canadian racing the WTS event, after Triathlon Canada ruled that going forward their athletes must earn two world cup podiums in order to line up for a WTS (this makes Mislawchuk — the 22-year-old who placed 15th at the Rio Olympic Games last summer — ineligible by Triathlon Canada standards, so he was forced to withdraw from the start list).

Triathlon Canada high performance director Eugene Liang touched on the governing body’s strategy in a press release:

“Having another medal at the Olympic Games is a huge development for triathlon in our country, and I know this Canadian foursome is hungry to show they can be amongst the best teams in the world,” said Eugene Liang, High-Performance Director, Triathlon Canada, who added the national body’s goal is to field a full team of athletes for both the individual and mixed team relay events at the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Summer Games. “While we do have a unique opportunity in front of us, Triathlon Canada will not waver in our approach and investment in developing athletes focused on excelling in individual race disciplines. It is these top individual athletes who will also perform best when brought together in the mixed team relay format.”

The press release adds that, “Already working to align the relay initiative into the long-term high-performance plan, Triathlon Canada identified a pool of the nation’s top triathletes to battle for selection to represent Canada at the event’s first major test on the international stage since becoming an official Olympic medal discipline.”

Matt Sharpe and Dominika Jamnicky will serve as alternates for the Mixed Relay in Hamburg.