The United States’ Katie Ledecky won the gold medal in the women’s 1500m freestyle, with Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom taking silver and Australia’s Emily Seebohm claiming bronze.
| Dates: July 23rd to August 8th, Tokyo time: BST +8 |
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Jessica Learmonth, Jonny Brownlee, Georgia Taylor-Brown, and Alex Yee of Great Britain won the first Olympic mixed relay with a fantastic effort.
Brownlee, who declared in June that he was “ready for a new challenge,” had a successful Games goodbye, winning his first gold in his third Olympics.
After being briefly overtaken by France’s Vincent Luis in the cycling stage, Yee surged away in the 2km run to win Britain’s sixth gold in Tokyo.
The United Kingdom finished 14 seconds ahead of the United States, with France taking bronze.
“I was a little nervous taking over since the three guys before me had run flawless races,” said Yee, a silver medalist in the men’s individual event.
Brownlee pulled away from the pack after a strong first leg from Learmonth, while individual women’s silver medalist Taylor-Brown and Yee maintained the lead to win Britain’s third triathlon medal of the week.
Brownlee finished sixth in the individual race on Monday, after winning bronze in London nine years ago and silver in Rio behind his brother Alistair.
He did, however, play a key part in Britain’s gold-medal victory on Saturday.
“What about the Olympics? I’ve finished it, “Brownlee, who is 31 years old, said.
“It feels totally wonderful.” It’s my third Olympics, and I’m finally a gold medalist.
“We knew there was a lot of expectation on us going into this race; we all had to race well and do everything properly, and that’s exactly what we did.”
The United Kingdom came in 14 seconds ahead of the United States, while France took bronze.
The two-time Commonwealth Games silver medalist, Learmonth, 33, told the BBC “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Being on a team of Olympic medalists made me a little apprehensive, but I’m happy we had a fantastic race.”
During the third leg, Taylor-Brown, 27, built a 23-second lead as she followed Brownlee’s efforts.
“I simply tried not to freak out. Jonny had given me such a huge advantage “she said
“I just knew I had some time to relax and not get too worked up about it, since that’s when things can go horribly wrong.”
“I knew I had to give it my all on the last run lap and leave as much of a space as possible for Yee guy!”
Yee, who is competing in his first Olympic Games, said he had to react when Luis overtook him on the bike before pulling away during the run.
He said, “I know my run is my strength, so I just went for it.” “It’s incredible to be here and to be doing it with these incredible people.”
Yee, 23, previously competed for Great Britain in the 10,000m at the European Championships in 2018, but trained as a triathlete with the Brownlee brothers in Leeds.
He did, however, have a severe bike accident in his first World Cup race in June 2017, which resulted in a punctured lung and the shattering of ribs, vertebrae, and a shoulder blade.
