The Italian quartet of Paola Sacchi, Miguel Espuna, Beatrice Mallozzi and Euan De Nigro scored a famous Mixed Relay win on Sunday to close out the Edmonton World Cup weekend. 

“Beatrice gave me a great position to work with so I pushed it on the swim and stayed in control on the bike,” said Euan De Nigro. “Sullivan was really strong but I knew he had a penalty on the run, so on the second lap I just went. We needed this result after Hamburg. We are a new team and Italy is doing well, so we need to keep this momentum.”

Tara Sosinski had led Team Australia from Italy's Sacchi heading into the first of the long transition runs, but the bike segment saw eight athletes come together, now spearheaded by Naomi Ruff (USA). Israel’s Aviv Levi pulled clear early on the 1.8km before Ruff again took the race on, stretching the field with Sacchi, who would hand over first to Miguel Espuna with USA's Reese Vannerson in hot pursuit, Australia, Canada and Mexico 12 seconds back. 

It was USA and Italy first out of the lake, Tyler Mislawchuk and Canada joining them on the opening stages of the bike and the trio was able to put 30 seconds into Netherlands over the 6.8km bike. Vannerson and Mislawchuk dropped Espuna on their first run lap, Baptiste Passemard and Jayden Schofield trying to haul France and Australia back into the mix.

At the tag, Isla Britton darted down transition for Canada ahead of Michelle Magnani and the USA, Beatrice Mallozzi (ITA) and Candice Denizot (FRA) now together 22 seconds back, the Swiss and Australian teams chasing hard a further 10 seconds back. Magnani put the hammer down and pulled clear solo on the bike leaving Anja Weber (SUI), Italy, Canada and France 26 seconds back, Netherlands drifting to a minute off the front. 

But Denizot, Mallozzi and Britton closed that gap on the run and Blake Bullard had just 2 seconds advantage heading into his fourth and final leg for the USA, the Swiss 45 seconds, Mexico 90 and Australia 120 seconds back respectively. Euan De Nigro put together a brilliant 300m swim to earn Italy a 13 second advantage over the pack but the group came back together on the bike, making it a four-way shootout for the three medals.

Martin Sobey was quickly out of T2 for Canada but Middaugh and the USA took to the front, only to have to serve a 10s penalty and it was a moment De Nigro took full advantage of. The Italian pulled clear of Sobey and flew to the tape, 7 seconds clear of Team Canada in second, France third ahead of Middaugh and the USA.