The New Zealand and Australian Triathlon Mixed Team took home bronze today, with Elizabeth Stannard, 17, Palmerston North, and Daniel Hoy, 16, Auckland, joining Australian womens gold medallist Brittany Dutton, and her countryman Jack van Stekelenburg to make up Oceania One.
The Australians opened up the relay, with Dutton taking the lead early but earning a penalty for not storing her swimming equipment properly after the swim. A pair of goggles fell out of the holding box, incurring a 10 second penalty that the athletes could assign to any of the other relay members.
To make up lost ground, Dutton hammered the run home, handing over the race to van Stekelenburg with a 21 second lead on the chase pack. The race tightened over the 250 metre swim, 6.6 kilometre bike and 1800 metre run and Stekelenburg handed the race to New Zealands Stannard in first, but with the chase pack closing in.
Europe One and Three made the decision to put their strongest women on the third leg with Stannard racing the eventual gold medallists, Europe One, and silver medallists Europe Three.
Im incredibly proud of Lizzie, Im incredibly proud of our team for banding together, said coach Nathan Richmond.
Daniel Hoy took the race in third with a gap to close on the leaders, individual mens gold medallist, Ben Dijkstra from Great Britain, and 8th in the individual, Bence Lehmann of Hungary.
Hoy described the race as a lot harder than the individual race as he was out on his own for most of the three disciplines. But the silver medallist and New Zealand junior 1500 metre record holder, held on to the bronze even given the task of waiting in the penalty box in the home stretch of his run.
Hoy said the penalty was a bit of a break as he finished the 1800m run and anchored the team relay.
My legs had nothing in the first kilometre, he said. But the team held on to Bronze and finished 19 seconds off the race winner.
Leading up to the campaign, there was an air of excitement in the Australian and New Zealand team," said Richmond, calling the race "a roller coaster of emotion."