It was home delight for the British quartet at the World Triathlon Mixed Relay in Nottingham as they beat a world-class field to take top spot.
Flying the flag for the Brits was Georgia Taylor-Brown, Sophie Coldwell, Ben Dijkstra and Alex Yee, coming into the event off the back of strong performances at the World Triathlon in Leeds earlier in June.
Persistent rainfall meant that the event format changed to a duathlon (run, bike, run) but that did nothing to deter the quartet who came home in a time of 1.23.4.
Switzerland finished runners up but were well behind Taylor-Brown, Coldwell, Djikstra and Yee, crossing the line 42 seconds later, while France were another eight seconds behind them in third.
Last year’s champions United States could only muster 10th place and Yee, who finished 15th in Leeds, was full of praise for his teammates’ performances.
“I was put in such a great position by my teammates so I can’t thank them enough and I am really relieved that I could hold it,” he said.
“I felt fantastic from the first 100m and then I realised the task I had on my hands.
“The main thing for me was that even if I lost a few seconds here and there around the dead turns – I just wanted to stay safe on the bike because in the triathlon things can go wrong very quickly so I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen.”
Taylor-Brown added: “It’s so loud out there, sometimes you just need a bit of silence.
“Before when we were setting up for transition we heard people supporting the USA and I thought ‘what is this all about’ but as soon as we got going people were definitely on our side.”