German triathletes sprint to finish for Olympic mixed relay gold over U.S.

Laura Lindemann won a thrilling sprint finish to give Germany gold in the Olympic triathlon mixed relay on Monday, outkicking the United States and Britain after highly-fancied France were scuppered by a bike crash on the first of four legs.

There was a photo finish for second place, with officials initially announcing Beth Potter had taken it for defending champions Britain, though neither team was aware of the switch until they were lining up in the wrong places for the medal presentation.

It was a redemptive race for Lindemann, who had suffered a bike crash in the individual event and finished eighth, as well as for Germany, who finished sixth in Tokyo but came to Paris as back to back world champions.

Lead athlete Tim Hellwig said his teammate's finish was "so exciting" to watch. "We know she has one of the strongest kicks in world triathlon, but you always have to pull it off on the biggest stage, it's always one day and anything can happen but we trusted in her and she did the job in the end," said Hellwig.

Lisa Tertsch, however, whose scorching run in the second leg brought Germany right back into the mix, said: "I couldn't watch. It was too much."

In front of huge crowds lining the Paris streets, Alex Yee, winner of the individual race last week and who anchored Britain to 2021 relay gold in Tokyo, gave the defending champions an early lead with a fantastic run, with France 40 seconds back in last place after Pierre le Corre was brought down by New Zealand's Hayden Wilde and then struggled to get his chain back on.With sprint distances of a 300-metre swim, seven-kilometre bike and 1.8 km run, it effectively ended the hosts' chance.

Britain's Georgia Taylor-Brown, also part of the Tokyo gold-medal winning team,