France underlined their strength in depth with a dominant victory in the Mixed Team Relay at WTCS Quiberon on Sunday.
After Abu Dhabi was cancelled this was the start of the relay qualification cycle for the next Olympics and France completed a clean sweep having won the two individual races yesterday with Cassandre Beaugrand and Dorain Coninx.
They were able to leave out Olympic champ Beaugrand for the relay but still win with ease thanks to Leonie Periault, Yanis Seguin, Emma Lombardi – whose rapid T1 on the third leg arguably proved race-defining – and Coninx, who anchored them to victory by a whopping 24 seconds.
Italy were a distant second, just ahead of Spain in the 16-team field, with Brazil a late withdrawal after Manoel Messias suffered a knock in the individual race on Saturday.
Leg 1 – Periault stars for the hosts
In contrast to the overcast conditions on Saturday it was bright and sunny so it was something of a surprise given temperatures of 36 degrees Celsius that a handful of athletes opted to wear a wetsuit.
The run to the water was almost as long as the 250 metres swim and Aspen Anderson (AUS) was the early leader from Beth Cook (GBR) before Italy’s Bianca Seregni – arguably the class swimmer in the field and one of those going with a wetsuit – moved to the front.
Cook was out of the water first but overtaken on the even longer run back to T1 by Jolien Vermeylen (BEL) and Periault (FRA) – just seven seconds covered the entire field!
Those in a wetsuit obviously took longer at transition and missed the early front group for the 8km bike section but before the end of the first lap it was largely back together with 11 nations leading the way.
Mariana Vargem, first off for one of the favourites in Portugal, was in 12th and struggling to close the gap while Japan, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Hungary were the four with plenty of ground to make up.
That pattern continued, Vargem had been swallowed up by the other quartet and they were now 43 seconds back going into T2.
Early on the 1.25km run, Vermeylen lost ground for Belgium as news also came through that she had been hit with a 10-second penalty for swim conduct.
Up front Gina Sereno was absolutely flying for the United States and powered into the lead but Periault then used the one hill on the course to claim the lead for hosts France and she handed over first ahead of leg two.
Lehair was next for Luxembourg, four seconds back, with a further couple of seconds to the USA. There were already some big gaps with Team GB – without Georgia Taylor-Brown and Alex Yee- one of the casualties at +51s in 11th.
Leg 2 – Rider stars for USA
Luxembourg, through Lucas Cambresy, and the USA via Seth Rider were back on terms with Yanis Seguin and France after the swim.
Australia, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Spain were all around 10 seconds back so we had two front groups in the early stages of the bike.
And the trio up front worked superbly to gradually increase that advantage – going into T1 they were 34 seconds to the good and it was a group of seven behind, with Switzerland and New Zealand having joined the other five. Barring something extraordinary, the rest – which included Portugal and GB – looked to have to much to do.
Rider got off to a fast start on the run, putting daylight between himself and Seguin, with Cambresy a similar distance back in third.
And he maintained the pace too, meaning he was able to hand over to 2016 Olympic champion Gwen Jorgensen with a four seconds advantage.
Leg 3 – Lombardi tees up France
Jorgensen (USA) and Lombardi (FRA) now had a clear advantage, with Cambresy have lost ground late on the run as Luxembourg were reeled in by the chase pack.
It was 21 seconds going into T1 but Lombardi was quickest through transition meaning that Jorgensen had to work hard to get back on her wheel – would that prove costly?
And soon after the elastic snapped between Lombardi and Jorgensen, with the Frenchwoman deciding she was going to go solo. At the end of the first of two bike loops she was fully 20 seconds ahead, with Jorgensen in danger of being caught by the chase pack.
That catch happened before T2 and when Lombardi started her run she was 19 seconds ahead of the rest.
She was able to maintain that on the run to give Dorian Coninx, the men’s winner on Saturday, what was surely an unassailable lead.
Second was Italy at +21s, with New Zealand, the USA, Germany, Spain and Australia hot on their heels – and the medals were surely between them.
Leg 4 – Cruise control for Coninx
Coninx had gone down the wetsuit route and was in splendid isolation up front. Exiting the water he had extended his advantage to 27 seconds and despite taking off his wetsuit with the minimum of fuss he apparently lost 10 seconds by the time he went over the timing mat to start the bike.
That seemed a surprise and at the first bike split on lap one the advantage was back up to 31 seconds on the six chasers who were all closely packed.
By the time he started his run he was 47 ahead and the win was in the bag – but the battle for silver and bronze could hardly have been fiercer, especially as Portugal and GB had worked their way up to the chase group.
Coninx duly took the plaudits and high fives as he closed out the win in contrasting style to his sprint finish on Saturday, winning by 24 seconds despite easing down.
Italy just pipped Spain for second, with Australia fourth, Portugal fifth, USA sixth and GB seventh.
WTCS Quiberon 2026 Mixed Relay results
Sunday 21 June – 250m, 8km, 1.25km
| Position | Team | Nationality | Leg 1 | Leg 2 | Leg 3 | Leg 4 | Overall Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | France | France | 00:21:42 | 00:19:56 | 00:22:19 | 00:19:46 | 01:23:42 |
| 2 | Italy | Italy | 00:21:59 | 00:20:02 | 00:22:18 | 00:19:49 | 01:24:06 |
| 3 | Spain | Spain | 00:21:59 | 00:20:04 | 00:22:21 | 00:19:43 | 01:24:07 |
| 4 | Australia | Australia | 00:22:00 | 00:20:01 | 00:22:25 | 00:19:44 | 01:24:08 |
| 5 | Portugal | Portugal | 00:22:55 | 00:19:53 | 00:22:18 | 00:19:05 | 01:24:09 |
| 6 | United States | United States | 00:21:48 | 00:19:47 | 00:22:46 | 00:20:02 | 01:24:21 |
| 7 | Great Britain | Great Britain | 00:22:33 | 00:20:16 | 00:22:17 | 00:19:21 | 01:24:25 |
| 8 | Germany | Germany | 00:21:55 | 00:20:06 | 00:22:21 | 00:20:06 | 01:24:26 |
| 9 | New Zealand | New Zealand | 00:22:12 | 00:19:54 | 00:22:14 | 00:20:08 | 01:24:27 |
| 10 | Switzerland | Switzerland | 00:22:11 | 00:19:54 | 00:22:36 | 00:19:57 | 01:24:36 |
