After the Stade de France on Sunday night, where the men’s 100m final was decided by five-thousandths-of-a-second, you suspected we might have to wait a long time to see a finish quite so close.
Well, within 12 hours, here was a rival. Okay, so on the clock, the margin was not quite so minuscule. But for drama, for accessibility of the fractions to the naked eye, it was right up there.
In a thrilling three-way finish, at the end of a mixed triathlon relay that had engrossed across four frantic legs of swim, bike and run, Germany took gold, officially one second - though really probably half that - ahead of the USA and Great Britain, who were awarded the same time.
So tough were they to split that initially the British quartet of Alex Yee, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Sam Dickinson and Beth Potter were awarded silver, later downgraded to bronze behind the States in a photo-finish.
“We didn't really know to be honest,” said Potter, who had the best, or maybe worst, view of anyone, lunging for the tape alongside America's Taylor Knibb. In truth, there was no real controversy, certainly no grumbling on the British side at the final result, just a case of someone, somewhere being a little hasty on the button.
Yee, the individual gold medalist here, and Taylor-Brown were part of the British quartet that won the inaugural edition of this race in Tokyo by clear daylight three years ago. Here, though, the event came into its own in a genuine highlight of these Games, one that went some way to justifying the uncertainty that has surrounded when and through which disciplines these athletes might get to race.
Swimming practice on two previous days had been cancelled, again due to concerns over water quality in the Seine. Organisers confirmed on Sunday night, however, that the race would go ahead, answering teams’ call for clarity after verdicts on the individual races last week had been delayed until the early hours.
On a glorious morning, thousands of expectant French supporters lined the bridges, the banks and the Champs-Elysees for what the venue announcer described in terms hard to dispute as “quite possibly the most beautiful race that has ever taken place”.
“We came down this morning and [the crowd] was three or four deep at 5am,” said Mike Cavendish, British triathlon’s performance director. “You wouldn’t have had that outside the centre of Paris. We know it wasn’t ideal but at the end of the day it’s been a brilliant spectacle and that’s what it will be remembered for.”
The host nation were favourites, like Britain, having taken a gold and a bronze from the individual races, but outlining their depth by finishing fourth in both races as well. Their hopes, though, never recovered from a first leg crash, Pierre le Corre tangling with individual silver-medalist Hayden Wilde, of New Zealand, and both men hit the ground.
Yee only narrowly avoided the crash himself. With a glance back over his shoulder, he noted the identity of the victims and set off, turning the screw with the fastest run of any athlete all day, and the fastest leg overall. Still, handing over to Taylor-Brown, Britain’s lead over second-placed Germany was only three seconds.
Through most of the middle legs, that pair shared the lead, Britain occasionally pulling ahead but never decisively so.
Dickinson had performed a selfless job on two wheels in the individual event, leading Yee through the bike leg and delivering him onto his favoured run for a shot at gold, before stepping off the course. He called it “the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do”, accepting a DNF next to his name on his sport’s biggest stage in the name of energy conservation and the greater good.
“My whole Olympics was geared towards today,” he said here, and when a blistering late kick handed Potter a five-second advantage going into the final leg, patience looked to have paid.
Potter had almost doubled that by the end of the swim, but her problems were growing back down the road. Had she been racing against just Germany’s Laura Lindemann, she may well have pulled away. But instead, Lindemann was picked up and pulled along by Knibb, an outstanding cyclist who finished in the top 20 among the specialists in the time trial, and the American’s epic ride created a three-way scrap for gold heading into transition for the final time.
Potter, who ran the 10,000m on the track at Rio 2016, was the favourite at that point, but the outsider, off the pace, with 400 metres to go. She closed hard, the medalists entering the final straight three abreast and all still a chance to end up with any colour.
Potter hit the line at the same moment as Knibb, a fraction ahead she and plenty others thought, a fraction behind it would later emerge. Lindemann, though, got there before them both, and made it Germany’s gold.
