With none of the four members of the Paris 2024 gold medal-winning team, and only one of the World Champion squad, Team Germany were able to call upon a new generation of talent that still brought home the first Mixed Relay Series gold of 2025.
Selina Klamt, Jan Diener, Tanja Neubert and Henry Graf were charged with representing the most successful relay team on the planet in recent years, and the quartet stepped up to the plate in style, Graf holding off the marauding Morgan Pearson to take the tape after a stunning third leg from Neubert hauled them into the race.
Olympic Relay silver medallist Morgan Pearson was able to pull clear of his nearest rivals over the run to secure silver with teammates Taylor Spivey, John Reed and Erika Ackerlund, Euan de Nigro with a mighty final push to win bronze for the Italian team led by Alice Betto, Nicolo Azzano and Bianca Seregni.
The Olympic and World Champions certainly didn’t have it all their own way, Klamt on her elite relay debut losing ground on the run as Jolien Vermeylen (BEL), Anna Godoy (ESP) and Spivey led the field back towards the beach handover zone.
Vermeylen had produced something special to create the gap, teammate Arnaud Mengal then veering off course on the swim and getting caught by Max Stapley (GBR), Vasco Vilaça (POR) and Simon Westermann (SUI) as eight men came out of the water within six seconds of each other.
That was when the race blew apart. Westermann, Stapley, Vilaça, Cantero and Kolkman had got away when the Swiss came off at speed out of a fast corner at the end of lap one, taking Stapley and Vilaça with him, only Cantero and Kolkman able to continue.
That pair now had 30 seconds over Azzano, Reed and Mengal, Edgar for Ireland, Nener for Japan and Diener for Germany 50 seconds back. Those gaps were shaved down marginally by the end of the leg, but at the halfway point, Germany looked out of contention.
Step up Tanja Neubert. Out of the water she took 10 seconds out of the gap, by the end of the bike it was just 15 seconds, Miriam Casillas (ESP) and Luna de Bruin (NED) unable to keep away. By the end of the run, Neubert had earned an eight second lead for Germany and Henry Graf, a career best 4th place in the previous day’s individual, took up the task with gusto.
Out of the water, Graf had 12 seconds over Morgan Pearson in second, Euan De Nigro 19 seconds back in third, Sanchez (ESP) and Panjer (NED) in chase.
As Pearson dropped back to the pack, the lead off the bike was 35 seconds for Germany, and onto the final run of the day Graf was never in any danger, De Nigro doing brilliantly to hold on to Pearson in his first elite relay.
A familiar gold for an unfamiliar Team Germany, silver USA, bronze to the Italians, Spain and the Netherlands over in fourth and fifth ahead of Belgium, Japan and Ireland.
WINNER QUOTES:
Selina Klamt – “It was my first ever mixed relay elite race. So, yeah, I hadn't the best race, but yeah, my teammates were great. My teammates are really precious and yeah, it was awesome to watch them.”
Jan Diener - “I had a really bad race yesterday individually, so I didn't really want to do the relay today, but my team said I should do it and I'm happy I did. Also very sad there was a lot of teams that crashed, I hope they're okay. Thank you to my teammates.”
Tanja Neubert – “I just went all out and tried to close the gap and give Henry the shot to win the race.”
Henry Graf - “I knew I had to work on the bike because there were some really fast runners with De Nigro, Pearson and Sanchez coming up, so I wanted to stay away. So I worked really hard on the first lap of the bike already and then I was suffering quite bad on the run and I saw Pearson coming closer, but yeah, I'm really glad I could keep him off and yeah, I think Tanja did really the MVP performance today. That was crazy. I didn't expect to start first and then suddenly she came around the corner.”
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Full results, click here.
