There are few opportunities to race in the Mixed Team Relay at the highest level. For many, every event essentially becomes an audition to secure a spot on the team at major events.
In Hamburg, several athletes found themselves in that position.
Beth Potter raced on the British relay for the first time (although she had previously raced on the Scottish relay at the Commonwealth Games). Annika Koch and Simon Henseleit also earned chances to race on the German team after logging personal best WTCS finishes in the individual event.
Due to the nature of the course, the legs cannot be perfectly compared. To start with, the first leg was the only one to begin with a flat-start from the pontoon. The subsequent three legs all had a short run before the athletes launched themselves into the Binnenalster.
The final leg also had a different finish. Whereas the first three legs ended earlier as the athletes tagged their next teammates, the last athletes had a longer run to the finish area. The middle legs were the same when it came to the course but one was contested by a woman and the other by a man, reducing the relevance to one another.
This article will therefore focus on the best splits of each leg rather than trying to ascertain who might have had the best performances.
At the same time, there is one important factor to add to the mix. The World U23/Junior Mixed Team Relay Championships also took place in Hamburg and we will include the best legs from that relay to see how the younger athletes stacked up against their Senior counterparts.
Leg 1
Matthew Hauser was the performer among the opening legs and was one of three men to slide under the 19 minute mark. When he handed over to Natalie Van Coevorden in 18:55, he passed on a 2 second lead.
Vasco Vilaca was the next best performer from the opening leg with his time of 18:57. Tim Hellwig was close behind having recorded 18:58.
Within the legs, Hauser and Connor Bentley were the quickest swimmers. Both clocked 3:43 for the 300m which was slightly off the fastest splits from the WTCS event. Vilaca was right with them with a split of 3:44.
Marten Van Riel was able to bridge to the lead trio of Hauser, Vilaca and Hellwig on the back of the best bike split of day. He clocked 9:28 to make his way to the front.
Hauser and Hellwig then shared the same fastest run split in 4:53. Given that they tagged their teammates before the finish line, the course was a little shorter than the WTCS event and so does not directly compare.
By way of comparison, Hayden Wilde ran 4:59 and handed over Ainsley Thorpe in a total time of 19:11. One way of reading his performance was that he evidently felt the exertions of the final from WTCS Hamburg. When you dip that deeply into the well, it is hard to come back the following day.
When it came to the U23/Junior relay, Alessio Crociani was the fastest man on the first leg. The Italian clocked a total time of 19:37.
Crociani’s swim was definitely the highlight of his race as he produced a split of 3:38. That time would have stacked up well in the WTCS event and would have led the Senior relay. Thereafter he ran 5:14 which contributed to the gap between Crociani and the leading Senior opening legs.
Dylan McCullough and Brock Hoel also managed total times of 19:38 from the U23/Junior relay while Henry Graf was the only other man to break 20 minutes with his time of 19:58.
Leg 2
Taylor Spivey had work to do when she started on the second leg. Seth Rider put her in 10th place with ground to make up on the leaders. Spivey, though, had the bit between her teeth and ripped the fastest female leg of the day in a time of 21:21.
Julie Derron likewise had an outstanding race in the second leg and completed the course in 21:31. Zsanett Bragmayer and Jeanne Lehair then tapped their teammates in after clocking 21:34.
As had been the case in the individual event, Vittoria Lopes was the fastest swimmer. She swam 4:09 for the 300m which included the run to the pontoon.
Bragmayer was the next quickest swimmer in 4:16 while Spivey hit 4:18.
Where Spivey really made up ground was the bike. She clocked 10:29 to record the fastest split of the day in that regard. She was then one of four women to run 5:40 to close out her leg. Derron, Lehair and Annika Koch were the other three athletes to match Spivey’s run split.
Koch’s total time of 21:42 was enough to hand over in 1st place although a handful of countries had made up ground on the German team.
The best leg from the U23/Junior relay came from Márta Kropkó who hit a time of 22:16. She completed the swim in 4:12 which was comparable to the speed of the Senior women. He bike split of 11:00 was a little slower, but that was in part affected by being in a different cycling group.
A run split of 6:10 is ultimately what distanced Kropkó’s leg from her Senior counterparts. As a first year U23 athlete, she has plenty of time to address that part of her skillset.
Tilly Anema of Britain was the next best U23 athlete in a total time of 22:23. Anema was also one of two women to dip under 6 minutes on the run with a split of 5:57. Anouk Sterkers of France had the best run in 5:56.
Brea Roderick impressed with a leg time of 22:27. She broke clear on the run to hand over a substantial lead to her teammate, Saxon Morgan. Although her run split did not make it under the 6 minute barrier, it nonetheless was a vital component of how the race unfolded.
Leg 3
In the Senior race, Tayler Reid managed to overturn Germany’s lead in the swim to put New Zealand firmly in the mix for a medal. His swim went a long way in helping him to the fastest overall leg time of 19:28.
Simon Henseleit was the next best performer as he clocked 19:34. There was virtually nothing to separate him from Reid on the bike and run and Reid’s swim is what made the difference.
In a huge performance, Mitch Kolkman then had the third fastest leg. He recorded 19:35 to ramp the Netherlands up the standings.
When it came to the splits, Reid did not actually have the fastest swim. Rather, Márk Dévay led the way in 3:49 (Reid swam 3:51). Across the entire leg, only eight men dipped under 4 minutes for the swim; one point to note is that Lopes out-swam five men and was only 1 or 2 seconds away from adding several more scalps.
Casper Stornes was the best cyclist of the leg and narrowly missed Van Riel’s day-leading split on his way to a time of 9:30. The Norwegian was one of only seven men to crack under the 10 minute mark in the third leg. His split also matched what Vilaca, Hellwig and Wilde produced in the first leg.
Reid and Henseleit then ran 5:01 and 5:02, respectively. Matthew McElroy and Jacob Birtwhistle clocked run splits of 5:04 but were out of medal contention by that point. Kolkman then capped his great performance with a 5:05 split.
The best run split of the leg, though, came from Manoel Messias as he ripped a 4:51. His swim cost him a little in the relay however his run split was phenomenal.
The second male leg was also the closest an U23 athlete came to matching the Seniors.
Nicolo Strada completed the course in 19:46. To a large extent he has guided by a bike split of 9:50, matching the time produced by Dylan McCullough in the opening leg as the fastest of the U23/Junior relay.
Breaking the 10 minute mark was the preserve of a select few in the U23/Junior relay. Only Eric Diener (9:52), Hamish Reilly, Jonathan Oakley (both 9:56), Henry Graf (9:57) and Alessio Crociani (9:59) managed to get under the threshold.
At the same time, plenty of men did not do so in the Senior race. Cycling ability, then, was one of the big separators of the top Senior performers and the rest.
None of the U23 men ran under 5:10 either. Across the board, the U23/Junior athletes were very close to the Seniors in the water but the bike and run is where they gave up time.
Eric Diener was the next best U23/Junior performer after Strada with a total leg time of 20:00. Then Mitch Kolkman, once again, popped up with a time of 20:07.
The young Dutch athlete provides perhaps the best point of comparison as he very helpfully raced in the same position.
In the U23/Junior relay, he clocked 5:15 in the run which was 10 seconds slower than his split in the Senior relay. In the swim, he managed a 3:58 in the U23/Junior relay. Again, that was 3 seconds slower than his time in the Senior race. Finally, he completed the bike in 10:06 in the U23/Junior race which was 22 seconds slower than his Senior race split.
Given that the U23/Junior relay came first, fatigue would have been more likely to have been an issue for the Senior relay. However Kolkman really stepped up in the Senior race and was a pivotal athlete for the Netherlands.
Leg 4
On her relay debut for Britain, Beth Potter stopped the clock at 21:43. In doing so she claimed the best time of any athlete on the anchor leg.
Seeing as the run to the finish was longer for those on the fourth leg, an argument can be made that Potter was actually slightly quicker than Spivey. Of greater significance is that Potter really put her hand up to be a part of the British relay going forward. She will have to get past one of Sophie Coldwell and Georgia Taylor-Brown but she demonstrated that she could be a real asset.
Moreover she produced her time way down the field after the British team did not fire on all cylinders. Had she been fighting for a medal or the win, there is a chance she would have been even quicker.
Laura Lindemann produced the next best anchor leg with a time of 21:55 to see Germany home. Cathia Schär then dropped a fantastic 21:59 to put Switzerland onto the podium.
Potter hit a time of 4:23 for the swim and 5:38 for the run. Lindemann, meanwhile completed the swim in 4:19 and the run in 5:45. The best swim of the anchor legs went to Summer Rappaport who clocked 4:17.
Rappaport actually swam away from Schär but the Swiss athlete stormed back with the second fastest women’s bike split of the day (10:30).
Márta Kropkó anchored for Hungary in the Senior relay in 22:39. Her time is instructive as it offers a rough indication of how much longer the fourth leg was than second. Kropkó was 23 seconds faster on the second leg than the fourth leg. As seen with Kolkman, there is a chance that she upped her game for the Senior relay too.
On balance, then, the anchor legs added about 20 to 30 seconds compared to the second leg with the longer finish.
The best fourth leg from the U23/Junior relay came from Tanja Neubert. Like Lindemann, she saw Germany home to the gold medal. Neubert’s final time was 22:22 and included a 4:34 swim and a 6:03 run.
Costanza Arpinelli was the next fastest athlete in the U23/Junior relay with a total time of 22:33. Her efforts saw Italy hold on to the silver medal.
