It was another day of glory for France with their top duo, Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger and Marion Legrand, powering their way to claim the gold medal at the Duathlon 2x2 Mixed Relay of the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama. Current world champions Arnaud Dely and Maurine Ricour finished in the second place on a extremely hot and humid Sunday afternoon, while the second French duo, with Nathan Guerbeur and Garance Blaut crossed the finish line in third place to take the bronze medal.
The last day of competition of the Birmingham World Games kicked off with the debut of the 2x2 Mixed Relay duathlon in the programme of the World Games. 13 teams lined up for a relay of 2km run, 6km bike and 1km final run before tagging a teammate, with the new format of man-woman-man-woman in place.
France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Mexico lined up two teams each, with both individual champions in Birmingham, Hueber-Moosbrugger and Ricour, vying for a second gold medal. And just from the first meters of the run, it was clear that the fight for the podium positions will be amongst France and Belgium, with both of their teams along with Australia delivering strong first legs, enough to give them a bit of a break with Team Netherlands I and II and Team Mexico I and II following in the chase group.
It was Australia’s Samuel Mileham the first one to hit transition, though. Still, the last leg of the run was enough for Hueber-Moosbrugger to show his class and tag his teammate in the first place, with Team France II and both Belgian Teams following close behind. Legrand was quickly joined by Ricour and together they went for most part of the second leg, with the other France-Belgium duo, Blaut and Lotte Claes, working together throughout most part of their leg. Behind them, both Dutch women -Ann Schoot Uiterkamp and Diede Diederiks- joined Team Australia on the hunt for the podium positions, but already more than 30 seconds behind the leading duos, while Japan’s Ai Ueda was trying to make up some time flying on her running segments.
The third leg seemed to be easier for Hueber-Moosbrugger, who had the fastest split of the day with 18:23, enough to give his teammate enough margin to breath and relax a bit in the fourth and final leg, knowing that even though Ricour is an excellent runner, it would be too much of a gap to close. The Belgian was more focused on keeping Blaut, from Team France II, behind, as the Frenchwoman was close to catching her in the last lap of the bike, only a few seconds of a gap.
By the time the athletes faced the blue carpet and the finish arch, Legrand had over one minute with Team Belgium, and was all smiles when she hugged her teammate Hueber-Moosbrugger right after holding the finish tape.
“The first leg, we were all teams together, but Maxime managed to give me a few seconds of an advantage. I knew that the Belgian girl was really strong on the bike but I was faster on the run, so I just tried to keep calm and cool, and keep the 30 seconds difference that Maxime gave me in the second leg. For me this medal was really important, after finishing fourth yesterday. We proved this weekend in Birmingham that the French team is really strong in Duathlon, all my teammates have at least one medal here at the World Games, so we are all really happy”, said Legrand.
Her teammate said: “In my second leg, Marion tagged me with a 10 secs advantage, so this was perfect, cause I knew that I am stronger on the bike than Dely. At the beginning of the bike I really attacked to open a bigger gap, I planned to have like a TT session, so with that big gap before the last relay of Marion we were confident that we could make it. France has a really strong team in Duathlon, we had a podium sweep in the World Championships a month ago. The gold medal today is even more special because I get to share it with m teammates, and the shared glory always feels even better”.
Silver today was for the Belgian duo. “It was a very hard day today, mentally and physically. My legs were very sore and with these temperatures it was really hard, I though I was dying, but I am really happy”, said Maurice Ricour after crossing the finish line. “The last leg I was flat, I was really tired, so it was just all about keep calm and avoid crashes and keeping the position so that my teammate could finish in the second place”, explained Arnaud Dely.
Only a few seconds behind, the second French team of Nathan Guerbeur and Garance Blaut crossed the finish line to claim the bronze medal, while the second Belgian team - Vincent Bierinckx and Lotte Claes- finished in the fourth place.
Behind them, Team Netherlands I -Thomas Cremers and Ann Schoot Uiterkamp- hold on to the fifth place, and Nethlerlands II -Joey Van ‘t Verlaat and Diede Diederiks- finish in 6th, while Japan -Ai Ueda and Fumiya Tanaka- were 7th and Team Mexico II -Victor Emmanuel Zambrano Gonzalez and Luisa Daniela Baca Vargas- eighth.
You can check full results here.