Photo-finish drama swipes silver from GB triathletes

Beth Potter thought she had edged the runners-up spot in a sprint finish... only to be downgraded to bronze by 0.01sec

- JAMIE BRAIDWOOD

They still held hands, beamed wide smiles, and stepped onto the podium as one. Not for gold, despite leading for the majority of the race, or for silver, despite being initially declared runnersup, but for bronze, third in a three-team sprint finish separated by one-hundredth of a second on the line. A golden morning in Paris turned into devastation for Great Britain, as the reigning champions in the triathlon mixed relay lost their crown and settled for the minor medal by the barest of margins.

The result was changed after an investigation. A review of the photo finish quickly found Beth Potter was beaten to second by the indefatigable American Taylor Knibb after Germany’s Laura Lindemann sprinted to the gold that had been within Team GB’s grasp for so long. They had set out hard, with Alex Yee, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Sam Dickinson and then Potter stretching Great Britain’s lead to 12 seconds before the world champion was reeled in on the bike and fell behind on the run.

Potter tried to find a late surge but Lindemann was too strong, earning world champions Germany the Olympic title. “Photo finish” flashed up next to Great Britain and the United States but someone controlling the scoreboard was too quick in declaring the result. As the teams were lining up in the wrong places for the medal presentation, World Triathlon reviewed the photo finish and found Knibb had crossed the line first with her chest. When Team GB saw the evidence, they had no complaints about the decision.