It’s Mixed Relay with a different twist at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympics on Thursday August 21.
With just one competitor for each NOC, the Mixed Relay teams are instead based on continents. Teams from the Americas, Oceania, Europe, Asia and Africa have been formed based on the rankings after the individual races earlier this week.
The first team selected for Europe includes three individual triathlon medallists, led by gold medallist Ben Dijkstra (Great Britain), bronze medallist Emile Dereluan Hansen (Denmark), bronze medallist Emilie Morier (France) and fourth-placed finisher Kristin Ranwig (Germany). On Thursday Ranwig will take the first leg, followed by Hansen, and then Morier will hand the hammer to Dijkstra.
The first Oceania team also has multiple individual medallists, with gold medallist Brittany Dutton (Australia) and silver medallist Daniel Hoy (New Zealand) alongside teammates Jack van Stekelenburg (Australia) and Elizabeth Stannard (New Zealand). On Thursday Dutton will start, followed by van Stekelenburg, then Stannard and Hoy. It means that the two men who battled out for the individual men’s gold in a photo finish will be going head to head again at Xuanwu Lake on Thursday.
Europe 2 will also be one of the main contenders with Elizaveta Zhizhina (Russia), Alberto Gonzalez Garcia (Spain), Kirsten Nuyes (Netherlands) and Peer Sönksen (Germany). Sönksen finished just out of the medals, fourth in the individual men’s race.
Team America 1 are also in form going off the individual races, Venzeuela’s Katherine Vanesa Clemant Materano, Chile’s Javier Martin, the USA’s Stephanie Jenks and Canada’s Charles Paquet.
Europe 3 has Sian Rainsley (Great Britain), Guilio Soldati (Italy), Carmen Gomez Cortes (Spain) and Lehmann Bence (Hungary). Europe 4 includes Amber Robmbuat (Belgium), Miguel Cassiano (Portugal), Alberte Kjær Pedersen (Denmark) and Omri Bahat (Israel).
Asia 1 will be lead out by Japan’s Minami Kubono, who will hand over to Hong Kong China’s Michael Lam, before finishing with Korean teammates Gyuri Kim and Gyuhyung Lee.
Canada’s Emily Wagner will be first in the water for America 2, and will be followed by Colombia’s Eduardo Londoño Naranjo, Chile’s Catalina Salazar and the USA’s Seth Rider.
Europe 5 is Sara Skardelly (Austria), Romain Loop (Belgium), Flóra Bicsák (Hungary) and will be brought home by Dmitry Efimov (Russia).
America 3 will be lead by Brazil’s Barbara Juliana Dos Santos, Bermuda’s Tyler Smith, El Salvador’s Giovanna Michelle Gonzalez Miranda and Venzeuela’s Jose Gabriel Solorzano.
Asia 2 will be led by China’s Jingshuang Feng, Singapore’s Bryce Sheng Cher Chong and Denise Chia Su Yin and Japan’s Koyo Yamasaki.
America’s 4 includes Ana Catalina Barahona (Costa Rica), Diego Alejandro Lopez Acosta (Mexico), Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto (Colombia) and Bryan Fernando Mendoza Ramos (El Salvador).
The world teams include athletes from multiple continents and World 1 representatives will be Jessica Romero Tinoco (Mexico), Victor Manuel Herrera de la Hoz (Cuba), Sofiya Pryyma (Ukraine) and Philip Horwarth (Austria).
Team Africa is made up of athletes from South Africa and Egypt and on Thursday it will be Rehab Hamdy (Egypt) leading out, handing over to Khaled Essam (Egypt), Jayme-Sue Vermaas (South Africa), Nathan Le Roux (South Africa).
The second world team is made up of Bermuda’s Erica Hawley, the Solomon Islands Boris Teddy and Zimbabwe’s Serena Rendell and Drew Williams.
The Asian 3 team consists of Hong Kong China’s Chelsea Cheuk Yi Hung, Chinese Taipei’s Chi Yin-Cheng, the Phillipines Victorija Deldio and Kazakhstan’s Arman Kydyrtayev.
Mixed Relay made its debut at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. There men’s competition individual bronze medallist Alois Knabl(AUT) edged out the gold medallist Aaron Barclay (NZL) in a thrilling finish in the final leg, claiming the gold medal for Team Europe 1 which included Eszter Dudas (HUN), Miguel Valente Fernandes (POR) and Fanny Beisaron (ISR).
Composition of teams is based on the results of the individual competitions. Team 1 is composed of the first ranked woman, first ranked man, second ranked woman and second ranked man for that continent. The remaining athletes were allocated into a world team. Start order was decided by each team at the pre-race briefing.
