British Triathlon sends dream team to Lausanne

GB picks its line-up for World Team Champs

Published: August 15, 2011 at 9:46 am

British Triathlon is sending a dream team to the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Lausanne event next weekend, 20 and 21 August. The event features both the ITU Elite Team and Sprint World Championships, with Britain’s relay team of Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, Helen Jenkins and Jodie Stimpson amongst the favourites for gold.



Having won the London rounds of the Series last weekend, Alistair Brownlee and Helen Jenkins, will form one half of Britain’s relay team, which, on paper, should be tough to beat. Jonathan Brownlee, who was third in London, is looking forward to racing in the fast and furious team event on Sunday 21st August.



He said: “The world team championships will be a really good event, they will be really exciting to watch. I’ve not done a relay since I was a youth, and it’s a really good event.”



Each athlete will complete a one-lap 265m swim, followed by a 5km bike section and a 1.2km run before handing over to their team mate. Transitions between the different disciplines will be crucial and all four athletes will have completed their turns inside an hour.



The team relay format was first introduced at senior level in 2009, and featured in Lansanne last year. On both occasion the gold medal went to Switzerland. It is hoped that the team event will feature in the 2016 Olympic Games.



The ITU Elite Sprint World Championship on Saturday 21st August will see Jonathan Brownlee attempt to defend the title he won last year from Tim Don, who is also racing having won silver last year. Alistair Brownlee, Todd Leckie and world junior silver medallist, Tom Bishop, are also racing.



Jonathan Brownlee said; “I’ll try to beat him [Alistair] this year. It’s a sprint race which changes triathlon again, it’s fast and furious from the start. It’s a good course, a hilly course. Anything can happen in a sprint race.”



Helen Jenkins and Jodie Stimpson will line up along with team mates Vicky Holland, Non Stanford, Hollie Avil and Lucy Hall for the Sprint event.



The ITU Elite Sprint World Championships will have the added incentive of Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series points and has therefore attracted most of the world’s top ranked athletes, including Javier Gomez (Spain), Alexander Brukhankov (Russia), Barbara Riveros Diaz (Chile) and Andrew Hewitt (New Zealand).



Lausanne was added to the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series following the postponement of the Yokohama round in May, and points will count towards the 2011 World title, which Alistair Brownlee is now targeting.



He said: “That would be fantastic. I’ve got three wins and that puts me in as strong a position as anyone to go on and win the world title.”



The Lausanne event is not being considered towards Olympic selection, whereas the rearranged Yokohama event on 19 September will count towards achieving point 4.1.4 (b) of the selection policy and 2012 Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series points.



GE Great Britain Team

Men: Tom Bishop, Alistair Brownlee, Jonathan Brownlee, Tim Don, Todd Leckie

Women: Hollie Avil, Lucy Hall, Vicky Holland, Helen Jenkins, Non Stanford, Jodie Stimpson



Relay teams

Team 1: Alistair Brownlee, Jonathan Brownlee, Helen Jenkins, Jodie Stimpson

Team 2: Tom Bishop, Todd Leckie, Vicky Holland, Non Stanford