Jessica Fullagar helps Great Britain to mixed relay silver at World Triathlon Championships Series

Ascot's Jessica Fullagar helped a new-look Great Britain to a surprise mixed relay silver at the World Triathlon Championships Series in Sunderland.

Fullagar was a late call-up replacing Olivia Mathias and took over from Max Stapley for the final leg with Britain in sixth before powering into first on the bike.

France pulled away on the run but Fullagar did enough to claim an impressive second place for the British team alongside Barclay Izzard, Beth Potter and Stapley.

“It’s surreal, I can’t believe what happened,” Fullagar said. “At 8:30 this morning, I was going for a swim to shake out from yesterday’s race and then suddenly at 10:45, I was racing.

“The nerves went from zero to 100 real quick, but I couldn’t believe it and I thought, it’s a race at home, why not?

“The team were incredible, they just said ‘You know what to do, just swim, bike and run, you’ve done it so many times before.’

“I was really nervous, there are some incredible athletes in my team and I didn’t want to let them down, but I just needed to focus on the processes and what I knew how to do.”

Fullagar had won the Super Series women’s event on Saturday and was not expecting to race before illness forced Mathias out of the relay.

The 23-year-old took on the final leg of the event and set off six seconds down on the leaders New Zealand before emerging from the swim in third.

A fast transition cut Cassandre Beaugrand of France’s lead heading to the bike, and she was soon caught by Fullagar who took the lead to claim a two-second advantage into the final transition.

Fullagar stumbled during her change from bike to run, which Beaugrand exploited and the Frenchwoman eventually pulled away.

The Briton came home 23 seconds after Beaugrand to claim silver and was raised into the air by her teammates who celebrated a well-deserved second place.

She added: “At the beginning of this week, I was not expecting that.

“It’s incredible, I have loved triathlon since I was about 10 and I’ve looked up to a lot of athletes so to progress through the Super Series and get a first taste of what it was like today is a bit surreal.

“I’m just really grateful for the people who have given me this opportunity.”

AJ Bell 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series Sunderland welcomed some of the best triathletes from around the world as well as home favourites representing Great Britain over 29-30 July.

British triathletes will be racing in Paris during August 2023 in preparation for next year’s Olympic Games.

You can follow British triathletes on their journey to Paris 2024 and find out more about opportunities to get involved in swim, bike, run at https://www.britishtriathlon.org/