Canadian Triathletes Finish Sixteenth at Mixed Relay World Championships

Four Canadian triathletes teamed up to finish in 16th place at the mixed relay World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden on Sunday.

Vancouver’s Lauren Campbell, Andrew Yorke, of Caledon, Ont., Joanna Brown, of Carp, Ont., and Alexander Hinton, of Kingston, Ont., got their first taste of racing the recently created exciting race discipline by posting a combined time of one hour, 31minutes, 26 seconds (1:31:26).

“The relay is such a fun event. We were fairly nervous this morning as it was pouring rain, which made things so difficult because most of the course is on cobblestones that got quite slippery. We were slipping and sliding all over the place during our bike warm-up,” said 19-year-old Joanna Brown. “This was our first relay so had no expectations as to where we’d be in the race. The field was super strong. It is a great format that is exciting, fast and brings the team together. I know Canada will excel in the future.”

A new race discipline seeking inclusion into the 2016 Olympic line-up, the relay consists of four athletes each completing a 300-metre swim, six-kilometre bike ride and a two-kilometre run. Athletes hand tag their teammates at the completion of each cycle.

The powerful British squad won the World Championship title with a time of 1:26:48. France was second at 1:26:58, while Russia came third at 1:27:31.