Reid burns up the course

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Tayler Reid turned in one of the performances of the day despite New Zealand finishing well out of the medals in the World Triathlon Mixed Relay in England.

Gisborne triathlete Reid posted the second-fastest time for the Nottingham-based race, which comprised a 300-metre swim in the Trent River, seven-kilometre cycle and a run of just over 1500 metres.

New Zealand’s two-man, two-woman team of Reid, Sam Ward, Nicole van der Kaay and Ainsley Thorpe finished 12th in a time of 1 hour 23 minutes 4 seconds.

The United States won in 1:21:16, with Great Britain second in 1:21:45 and France third in 1:21:57.

Van der Kaay ran the first leg for the Kiwis and was 26 seconds behind leader Cassandre Beaugrand when Reid took over.

He ate into France’s lead with a time of 19 minutes 25 seconds, helped by his speed at the transition stages.

Reid’s overall time ended up being the second-fastest overall. Only Australian Aaron Royle went quicker — 19:13 — and among those slower than Reid were triathlon superstars Jonathan Brownlee (19:35), of Great Britain, and South Africa’s Richard Murray (19:29).

Rising Kiwi triathlete Ainsley Thorpe lost ground on the third leg, the 20-year-old clocking 22:10.

Sam Ward brought the New Zealanders home in 20:10.

Reid, who won bronze in the mixed team relay at the Commonwealth Games, is back in action this weekend in the Leeds leg of the ITU World Triathlon Series.

The race consists of a 1500m swim, 40km cycle and 10km run.