TOKYO (Reuters) – Britain made history on Saturday as they won the first-ever Olympic gold in the triathlon mixed relay in 1:23:41, adding a third medal to their triathlon haul at Tokyo’s Odaiba Marine Park, as the United States took silver and France finished third.
Jessica Learmonth got Britain off to a roaring start as she led out of the swim on the first leg, and Rio silver and London bronze individual medallist Jonny Brownlee expanded their lead to nine seconds after the second leg with a superb transition off the bike.
Georgia Taylor-Brown and Alex Yee, who each won silver in the individual events earlier in the week, held on for Britain in the final half of the event under searing and sunny conditions, as competitors throughout the race collapsed on the blue carpet from exhaustion after completing their legs.
The race format features teams of two men and two women, who each complete a short-course race of 300 metres swim, 6.8km bike and 2km run before tagging their team mate to take over.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in Tokyo; editing by Stephen Coates)
