SUNDERLAND, Great Britain – The United States took eighth place at the 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series Mixed Relay event in Sunderland, England on Sunday, July 30. The U.S. team, made up of Chase McQueen (Columbus, Ind.), Gwen Jorgensen (Boulder, Colo.), Darr Smith (Atlanta, Ga.) and Gina Sereno (Madison, Wis.), competed for the first time together.

The group crossed the finish line with a time of 1 hour, 29 minutes and 17 seconds.

Nations lined up looking to earn qualifying points for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games next summer. France, Germany and Great Britain have already qualified teams for Paris 2024.

Taking on a 300-meter swim, 7-kilometer bike and 1.7k run, the man-woman-man-woman combo had McQueen leading off for the United States.

Similar to his performance the day before in the individual races, McQueen was first out of the water after the in-water beach start. Through the bike and run, he remained in the middle of the pack and tagged off to Jorgensen with a gap to fill of 26 seconds.

Jorgensen managed to gain some momentum for the U.S. and cut the gap to only 2 seconds and put them into third position going into the third leg.

Smith was the second man to go for Team USA. He had a strong swim and bike and pushed the pace to remain among the leaders. The field opened up on the run and the U.S. fell to eighth going into the final leg.

The final leg, with Sereno taking charge, maintained their position and remained in the eighth position through the finish line.

The mixed relay victory was won by Team France, followed by the home nation of Great Britain in second and Norway, earning their first-ever mixed relay podium in third.

In Hamburg earlier this month, the U.S. just missed the podium and finished fourth overall.

The next mixed relay event will take place in Paris as an Olympic test event on August 20. The race will be streamed live on TriathlonLIVE.tv.

2023 World Triathlon Championship Series Sunderland Mixed Relay
300m swim, 7k bike, 1.7k run

Elite Team Podium - Complete Results
1. France (Tom Richard, Emma Lombardi, Pierre Le Corre, Cassandre Beaugrand), 1:26:53
2. Great Britain (Barclay Izzard, Beth Potter, Max Stapley, Jessica Fullagar), 1:27:16
3. Norway (Vetle Bergsvik Thorn, Lotte Miller, Casper Stornes, Solveig Lovseth), 1:27:27

Team USA Finish
8. (Chase McQueen (Columbus, Ind.), Gwen Jorgensen (Boulder, Colo.), Darr Smith (Atlanta, Ga.), Gina Sereno (Madison, Wis.)), 1:29:17

U.S. Takes 8th Place in Sunderland Mixed Relay Event

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