The action heated up on day two of racing at the World Triathlon Multisport Championships Townsville 2024 with World Championship titles decided in the 2×2 Mixed Relay, Para Duathlon and Age-Group Duathlon Standard events.
The 2×2 Mixed Relay saw elite athletes racing for their countries in teams of two, with one male and one female taking to the course. Each athlete took on a 1700m run, 5km ride and 900m run twice in a relay fashion.
The event saw seven elite teams and three junior teams race along The Strand in Townsville, with the male athletes taking on the first and third legs, while the females completed the second and final legs.
Competition was tight throughout the first run leg, before France, Belgium and Australia opened up a gap on the bike. After the first athlete change France and Belgium pushed ahead with France’s Marion Legrand then picking up the pace as the Belgium team suffered a mechanical issue with Legrand opening up an unassailable lead.
The French didn’t look back from there, extending their lead at every timing point, with Thomas Laurent and Marion Legrand claiming the World Championship title in 1:05:34.
Great Britain’s James Hodgson and Phoebe Barker took home the silver medal, with Japan’s Ryosuke Kaneda and triple-Olympian Ai Ueda winning bronze.
“It was a good battle with the Belgium team early on, I gave it everything, when I gave the baton to Marion she did a great job because after the first relay she gave me a 15 second lead,”
Thomas Laurent
Legrand made it two World Championship titles in three days after winning the women’s elite Duathlon Sprint on Friday.
“It was important for me to do a good race today because last year I fell down in the relay so this year I’m really happy with Thomas because we did the job and I’m sorry for the Belgium team because it was a really good battle but I think we were the stronger side today, it’s a really amazing weekend for us here, so good,” said Legrand.
Great Britain’s Barker said it was a team effort to get the pair onto the second step of the podium in Townsville.
“James put in a great effort on that first leg to keep us in contention and then I just knew if I tried to take that first run of my leg out and hold it together on the bike I had really good team mates out on the course giving me splits and telling me that I was taking time out of the Australians behind and that gave me motivation to keep it going,” said Barker. “I knew that James would put in a really good third leg and then he left me with the easy part really, I just had to come home.”
In the Para Duathlon Matthew Engesser of Australia was the faster around the course in the PTS4 category, finishing ahead of France’s Mathieu Rella and New Zealand’s Kurt Peterson.
Fiona Southorn of New Zealand claimed the PTS5 women’s title in the Para Duathlon, crossing the line in 1:14:43.
The day got underway with the Age-Group Duathlon Standard event with hundreds of athletes taking on a 10km run, 40km ride and 5km run.
The first male Age-Group athlete was Remi Jauzac of France who crossed the line in 1:49:06, just over two minutes clear of Stephen MacMillan of Australia with Great Britain’s Beau Smith third.
In the women’s Age-Group race it was an all-Australian podium with Belinda Murray first in 2:00:40, two minutes clear of Lesley West, with Demi Caldwell a further minute behind in third.
“I’m surprised but it feels amazing, I wasn’t really expecting that today. It was tough out there, probably one of the toughest races to do what felt like a 10km time trial and then jumping on the bike is definitely different to the swim, bike, run but it was a beautiful course. I come from a triathlon background and today was only my second or third duathlon.”
Belinda Murray
“I visited here last year when the qualifiers were on but I was injured to I supported my club members, it’s really nice to be up here and actually race”, she said.
Racing at the World Triathlon Multisport Championships Townsville 2024 continues on Tuesday with the Cross Triathlon taking the action off-road.
The World Triathlon Multisport Championships Townsville is supported by the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland.
