CHENGDU, Chn— Four Canadian triathletes from across the country teamed up to secure the bronze medal in a hard-fought battle at the World Triathlon Cup in Chengdu, China on Sunday.
Isla Britton (Montreal), Tyler Mislawchuk (Oak Bluff, Man.), Sophia Howell (Airdrie, Alta.) and Martin Sobey (Charlottetown, P.E.I.) swam, pedaled and ran their hearts out to the podium, completing their four combined legs in a time of 1:22:53.
“It was an amazing day and a proud moment to represent Canada,” said Britton.
Britton, a 22-year-old National Development Team member, took the opening leg for the Canucks that combined a 300-metre swim, 6 kilometre bike and 1.5-kilometre run to set the early pace for the Canadian foursome. After charging out of the water in 11th spot of the 13-team field, Britton scrapped her way into podium contention over the bike and run where she handed off to Tyler Mislawchuk.
“My goal was to put Tyler in the best position possible and hand things over as close to the front as I could,” added Britton. “It was a bit of a slow swim for me. I stayed calm, settled in and worked my way quickly to the front group on the bike. I wanted to keep things smooth and consistent to set myself up for a fast run.”
Feeding off the momentum from Saturday’s bronze-medal triumph in individual racing, Mislawchuk kept the Canadians at the front of the pack. Completing the swim in second place, the three-time Olympian stayed clean on the bike before once again demonstrating his stellar run fitness where he was first into the tag zone.
“I found a new level running in the off season, so I was happy to showcase some of that,” said Mislawchuk. “It was an amazing effort today from Isla, Sophia and just an absolutely electric finish from Martin.”
The 24-year-old Howell maintained a podium position for Team Canada with the top three nations opening a gap on the field. USA and France continued to fight to stay connected with the leading trio, setting up a battle of five nations to determine the medals in the decisive final leg.
Completing the penultimate leg in second place, Howell put things in Sobey’s legs to finish things off where Great Britain and Spain broke away together on the bike. Sobey was locked in a battle with USA and France for the final spot on the podium that came down to a dramatic finish with the spirited Sobey edging out the Americans at the line.
“We believed all week this team could fight for the podium, and today was about executing and proving that,” said Sobey. “The team was super strong and set me up perfectly to battle for the podium. I never shy away from a sprint on the blue carpet.”
Team Spain won the gold medal with a time of 1:22:22. Great Britain finished 11 seconds back in second at 1:22:33.
