Georgia Taylor-Brown’s blistering sprint secured Team GB a mixed relay quota spot at Paris 2024 after a thrilling World Triathlon Series race in Montreal.
Taylor-Brown, who was part of the gold-medal winning relay squad in Tokyo, again delivered when it mattered most by putting together the fastest final leg of anyone to lift Great Britain from sixth to second..
The two-time Olympic medallist, who teamed up with Alex Yee, Sophie Coldwell and Sam Dickinson, held off USA’s Summer Rappaport, despite serving a time penalty in the final metres.
“I was kind of settling for fourth place because I thought [Nicole] Van der Kaay and Summer [Rappaport] were going to outrun me because I worked really hard on the swim and the first lap of the bike,” she said.
The result marked the second trip to the podium for both Taylor-Brown and Yee, who both won gold in Saturday’s individual eliminator races.
Raced over a 300m swim, 7.2km bike and 2km run, the slowest 10 athletes at both the end of stage one and stage two were eliminated, leaving the top-10 athletes to battle for the race win in the final super sprint race.
Taylor-Brown and Yee both powered to victory, while Beth Potter joined Taylor-Brown on the podium by finishing third for her first World Triathlon Series medal.
Elsewhere on a busy weekend, Olympic silver medallist Mallory Franklin claimed a gold and silver at the Canoe Slalom World Cup in Ljubljana-Tacan.
The 28-year-old took silver in the K1 event on Saturday before carrying on her recent C1 success with a gold medal in a time of 96.52 seconds 24 hours later.
She said: “I had no clue what had gone on, I just really wanted to do the best I could and it was a struggle at times but I’m glad I got it out and stayed clean and got to the finish well.”
There was a double celebration for British Canoeing, with Olympian Kimberley Woods claiming gold in the Extreme Slalom kayak event.
She said: “It means a lot to close off a long three weeks with a gold medal and it was really cool seeing my name on the gold medal but I was really happy to have made my first final."
At the British Athletics Championships in Manchester, Daryll Neita took the sprint double with victories in the women's 100m and 200m.
Neita upset rival Dina Asher-Smith to win the 100m in 10.80s and returned 24 hours later to claim the 200m crown in 22.34s to become the first woman to do the double since 2010.
Elsewhere, Max Burgin raised plenty of eyebrows with a brilliant victory in a stacked men’s 800m, taking gold in 1:44.54s, and Olympic medallist Laura Muir took 1500m gold with a killer last push.
Holly Bradshaw claimed her ninth outdoor national title with a first-time clearance of 4.50m, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake won the men's 200m in a championship record of 20.05 and 800m runner Jemma Reekie booked her spot at next month's World Championships with victory in the 800m.
Emulating his famous dad, Elliot Thompson won gold in the men’s decathlon on Saturday – 46 years after Daley took the title for the first time.
Sportsbeat 2022