Eighteen teams are ready for the first stop of the Mixd Relay Series that will take place this Sunday in Montreal. With two teams already qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games -France as the host country and Great Britain as winners of the 2022 Mixed Relay World Championships-, the rest of the teams are looking forward to start the Relay season with some valuable points to ensure a good position on the Rankings, which will guarantee the participation of two men and two women at the Games for that team. Buckle up, the battle for the victory in the Old Port of Montreal promises to be one for the ages.
Even though the final Teams compositions will not be public until two hours before the start of the race, what it is sure is that Team UK will be wearing number 1 on Sunday, and it is likely that some of their Olympic medallists will line up for the Relay, with an stellar selection that will potentially include triple Olympic medallist Jonathan Brownlee, double Olympic medallist Georgia Taylor-Brown and the likes of Jack Willis and either Sophie Coldwell or Beth Potter.
But with the Brits having their spot already secured, it will be a great opportunity for other teams like USA, Australia, New Zealand or Canada, among many others, to try new combinations or test the performance of their great stars.
In Team USA it will be Seth Rider, Summer Rappaport, Matthew McElroy and Taylor Spivey the ones that will try to secure a podium position on the Mixed Relay, even though none of them have raced on this set up before. But when it comes to a Relay, Team USA can never be discharged.
Similar situation to what happens with Team Australia, that will be mixing experienced athletes in the format with some newcomers, with a potential line up that includes Callum McClusky, Sophie Linn, Jacob Birtwhistlemand Jaz Hedgeland. The other Team from Oceania, New Zealand, will rely on Tayler Reid, Nicole Van Der Kaay, Dylan McCullough and Ainsley Thorpe to try to secure a podium spot.
The locals will benefit from the fact of racing at home and the extra push from the spectators, lining up their best guns on Sunday: Tyler Mislawchuk, Emy Legault, Charles Paquet and Dominika Jamnicky.
But with so many Olympic Qualification points on the line and so much racing already put in for many, several teams have brought in fresh legs, including Henri Schoeman that will be doing one leg for Team South Africa, or Vetle Bergsvik Thor for Team Norway, a Team that will also have either Kristian Blummenfelt or Gustav Iden plus Lotte Miller and Solveigh Løvseth.
Portugal, with Vasco Vilaca, Melanie Santos, Joao Pereira and Maria Tomé will be another team to follow during the race, as Team Brasil, that will have on its team Manoel Messias, Djenyfer Arnold, Miguel Hidalgo and Vittoria Lopes.
Germany, Italy or Mexico will also have a team lining up this Sunday in Montreal, as will do Hungary, japan, Mexico and China, all with the goal set on the Olympics.
