Great Britain claims gold in 1st-ever Olympic triathlon mixed relay event; Canada 15th

Great Britain claimed gold in the first-ever triathlon mixed relay event in Olympic history on Saturday in Tokyo, giving the country its 25th medal and seventh gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

The team finished with a total time of 1:23:41 to give Great Britain its third triathlon medal at Tokyo 2020, following silver medal wins from Alex Yee and Georgia Taylor-Brown in their individual events.

The U.S. team captured silver (1:23:55) ahead of bronze winners France (1:24:04), who entered the race as gold medal favourites.

Each team was comprised of two female and two male athletes, with competitors having to swim for 300 metres, cycle for eight kilometres and run for two kilometres before tapping their teammate's hand to pass the relay.

Yee cemented the inaugural victory for Great Britain with a tremendous performance down the final stretch, finishing ahead of American Morgan Pearson and France's Vincent Luis.

Taylor-Brown, Jonny Brownlee and Jessica Learmonth rounded out the rest of the winning team.

"The guys in the team did the best job in the world," Yee said. They literally could not have done a better job. For me, I knew what I had to do at the that point. I had to deliver on the great work they started and I am over the moon I could do that."

Learmonth gave Great Britain a great start to emerge as the leader after the initial swim portion. But American Katie Zaferes, bronze winner in the individual, pulled into second position during the cycle portion.

Brown got things started for Canada and was 16th after the first swim in the blistering Tokyo heat.

Zaferes continued to push forward and overtook Learmonth heading into the run, setting up teammate Kevin McDowell. France found themselves in fifth, while Germany's Jonas Schomburg pushed Germany into a new gear and suddenly moved his team into medal position as he dove into the water.

Canada moved up to 14th after Lepage tagged in.

McDowell made the difference on the bike to put the U.S. back into first place after Schomburg led coming out of the water. Brownlee put down significant power on the bike to move Great Britain into second ahead of Germany.

Next up for Great Britain was Taylor-Brown, who started smoothly and built a substantial gap. France's Cassandre Beaugrand had a strong performance in the swim to vault France into third place behind a determined Taylor Knibb of the U.S. Kretz, who finished 15th in the individual race, took over for Canada.

Taylor-Brown increased her lead on the cycling and run portions to set up Yee with a 21-second lead over the Americans. Canada was 15th out of the final exchange, with Sharpe finishing the race.

"It's difficult being up front," Brown said. "It's definitely easier to have someone to chase, but we all knew what we needed to do today and we definitely delivered."

'I raced my best race'

Pearson gained ground on Yee in the final cycling portion, but then Luis stormed past Pearson to put France in silver position. Luis found himself deadlocked with Yee, making it appear as if things would go down to the wire.

"He [Luis] caught me up on the bike. I just played to my strengths," Yee said. "It may not have been the most admirable way to win, I guess, but I just wanted to deliver for those guys, and I raced my best race and my best processes."

Pearson made a final push and moved past a fading Luis for second place, forcing France to settle for bronze. The Netherlands held on all race long to finish fourth.

The win gives returning Olympian Brownlee his third career medal at the Games, following a silver in Rio and bronze in London.

"It feels absolutely amazing to complete the set, to have three Olympic medals, three different colours," Brownlee said. "A super, super amazing day and being part of the team and to win the first ever mixed team relay at the Olympic Games in triathlon, perfect day."