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The fight for medals in the Olympic mixed triathlon came down to a thrilling three-way sprint and a desperate lunge for the finish on the Pont Alexandre III bridge. It ended in a significant surprise as Germany’s Laura Lindeman held off Taylor Knibb of the USA and Team GB’s Beth Potter to take gold.

The margin of victory after 1hr 25 mins and 39 seconds came down to one second – with a photo finish needed to separate Knibb, who secured silver, from Potter, who claimed bronze. Team GB were initially awarded silver before the photo finish result was amended and GB downgraded to bronze.

Mike Cavendish, the GB triathlon performance director, told the Guardian he had no complaints. “They [organisers] wanted to get something up straight away,” Cavendish said. “But when you looked at the official photo it was very, very tight – but the right call.”

“I’m so proud of the team,” said Britain’s Alex Yee, who had won gold in the individual men’s event, speaking after GB were initially awarded silver. “What an amazing day for our sport, what a day.”

His words were echoed by his teammate Sam Dickinson, who added: “Very happy with that. Just a clinical relay performance from start to finish, no mistakes. It’s so important to be at the front in a relay as we saw today. I had full faith handing to Beth, she had the hardest leg and she smashed it.”

But Team GB will surely feel like this was a gold medal that got away. Before the race it had been expected to be shootout between Britain and France, with each athlete having to complete a 300m swim, 7km bike leg, and 1.8km run before tagging to the next teammate.

(L-R) Tim Hellwig, Laura Lindemann, Lisa Tertsch and Lasse Luehrs of Germany pose with their medals. Photograph: Peter Cziborra/Reuters

However the race took a shock early turn on the first leg when the Frenchman Pierre Le Corre was taken out by New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde on the bike on the U-turn going around the Arc de Triomphe.

To make matters worse for Le Corre, his chain then came off. It meant the French team were 37 seconds down as Alex Yee handed off to Georgia Taylor-Brown in the lead. The French team never fully recovered, although they did eventually finish fourth.

Germany at this stage were three seconds back in second, but Lisa Tertsch produced a storming second leg to put them a second ahead at halfway.

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However a fine third leg from Sam Dickinson left Britain seven seconds clear when he handed over to Beth Potter, with Germany and the US working together to close the gap.

They succeeded, which left three countries fighting it out for gold. But as they set off on the final 1.8km run, Potter knew that she had the pedigree, having run in the 10,000m at the Rio Olympics, and also the form having won bronze in the individual women’s triathlon last week. Lindemann, meanwhile, had finished eighth in the individual race and Knibb 19th.

However Lindemann, who is known for her fast finishes, produced a storming run to take gold for Germany, with Potter initially seeming to have enough at the death to take silver, before the decision to downgrade GB to bronze.


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