The Victoria-based Canadian mixed relay triathlon team took some big strokes, pedals and footsteps toward the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics this week.
The team 鈥� Joanna Brown of Carp, Ont., Tyler Mislawchuk of Oak Bluff, Man., Amelie Kretz of Blainville, Que., and Matt Sharpe of Victoria 鈥� placed seventh in the opening Tokyo Olympic qualifying race in Nottingham, England. Sixteen national relay teams will qualify for the 2020 Olympics.
Kretz replaced 18-year-old Desirae Ridenour, of Cowichan Bay, from the Canadian foursome that placed fourth at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in April at Gold Coast, Australia, to show sa国际传媒鈥檚 depth in the event.
Sharpe, from Campbell River, who moved down-Island to train and graduate from Claremont Secondary, did it the hard way in Nottingham by spilling on the slick deck in the transition phase from the swim to the bike, dislocating his thumb.
鈥淚 lost some time trying to get my helmet on,鈥� Sharpe said in a statement. 鈥淥n to the bike, I was in a lot of pain, but I had other athletes around me so I just focused on staying with them. I wasn鈥檛 as good on the corners with my thumb, so I had to be as strategic as possible to hang in.
鈥淚 really had to push the run to catch up with my group. It was nice to be running hard as I couldn鈥檛 feel the pain in my thumb. I was able to out-sprint my group and finish up.鈥�
The U.S. won in one hour, 21 minutes, 16 seconds, while Great Britain was second in 1:21:45 and France third in 1:21:57. sa国际传媒 was across in 1:22:23.
Next up is the 2018 mixed relay world championship, July 14-15, in Hamburg, Germany, which is another Olympic points qualifier.
The mixed triathlon relay makes its Olympic debut in Tokyo. It features a female-male-female-male format with each competitor racing a 250-metre swim, seven-kilometre bike ride and 1.5-kilometre run loop before tagging off to the next teammate.
