France dominates Mixed Relay World Championships in Montreal

With the Olympics heading to Paris in 2024, France is keen to ensure it’s athletes will put on a good show in front of the hometown crowd. They certainly seem to be on track to do that – while it wasn’t Paris, they did put on a spectacular show for the French-speaking crowd in Montreal, dominating both the Junior/U23 and Elite Mixed Team Relay at today’s World Championships in Montreal.

Canada gets fifth in Junior/ U23

France led the way early with Valentin Morlec leading out of the water only to be passed on the run by Great Britain’s Hamish Reilly, while Filip Mainville kept Canada close enough in the first leg to allow Kira Gupta-Baltazar to quickly swim the Canadian team to third place. The British and French teams were pulling clear, though.

On the bike, Germany and the Netherlands managed to ahead of Canada as the men started the third leg. France’s Paul Georgenthum blasted clear, giving Candice Denizot a nine-second lead as she started the final leg. Great Britain’s Bethany Cook gained a bit of time on the bike, Denizot put things away on the run, leading France to a 20-second win. Germany rounded out the podium. Pavlos Antoniades and Collette Reimer rounded out the Canadian’s fifth-place effort.

Results: Mixed U23-Junior Relay
1.	Team I France	FRA	01:24:07
2.	Team I Great Britain	GBR	01:24:26
3.	Team I Germany	GER	01:25:40
4.	Team I Hungary	HUN	01:26:17
5.	Team I Canada	CAN	01:26:21

You can find full results here.

France just keeps rolling

After putting three men in the top-seven at yesterday’s WTCS race, along with Cassandre Beaugrand’s runner-up finish, it comes as no surprise that France would be in a position to dominate the elite Mixed Team Relay, too, which they did. Pierre Le Corre led things off, keeping France in the mix as Great Britain fielded yesterday’s champ Alex Yee in the first leg. Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk bounced back from his knee issues to lead Canada’s team and keep them in contention. On the second leg France’s Emma Lombardi and Great Britain’s Sophie Coldwell were part of a breakaway group of four, but no one was willing to pull through, so Coldwell sat up and let the rest of the group catch up, bunching the group again. Emy Legault kept Canada in the mix through the run.

On the third leg, though, France’s Vincent Luis put things away, surging to a huge lead out of the water and extending it over the rest of the field. Luis tagged off to Beaugrand with a huge lead, and the Frenchwoman simply cruised through the final leg to ensure France nailed the title.

Georgia Taylor-Brown flew through the run to ensure that Great Britain took silver, with American Summer Rappaport having a huge final run to bring the bronze home. Nicole Van Der Kaay helped New Zealand to fourth. Canada’s Charles Paquet and Dominika Jamnicky rounded out the Canadian squad, who took fifth again.

You can find full results from today’s race here.