Both races began with a one-lap 5.8-kilometre run, followed by 20.9km on a two-lap bike course and finishing with a one-lap 2.3km run along the San Antonio harbour.

Denmark’s Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen led the way on the first run in 20min 29sec, with Belgian pair Thibaut de Smet and Carabin and Spanish home favourite Sergio Correa Gonzalez all within four seconds.

Mountain bike specialist Carabin lost ground when he had to remove a piece of tree from his wheel, allowing Sloth Nielsen to extend a lead that stood at seven seconds after the first transition.

However, Carabin made up ground, and on the second lap of the bike opened up a gap which gave him a lead of around 30 seconds over the Dane.

Carabin completed the 20.9km bike element in 58:20 to the 59:07 of Sloth Nielsen, with a 58:50 effort from Italy's Alessandro Saravalle forcing him into medal contention.

There was little to separate the front two on the final run, Carabin crossing the finish line in 1 hour 30min 20sec for gold to upgrade the silver he won at the Multisport Championships last year.

"It was very fast, the tempo was high from the start and I just tried to keep in touch with the leader," he reflected.

"At 3km on the bike I got a piece of tree in my wheel and had to stop and take it out so that lost me 25 seconds, and I had to push to come back, and on the second lap just attack on every climb.

"On the technical part on lap two I made a gap and then just kept pushing to transition.

"Coming out I was exhausted but just wanted to keep the pace, I knew we were similar-strength runners, so I had no time to waste.

"It is the technical mountain bike part where I think I’m one of the best in the world and where I could push and make the gap."

Sloth Nielsen was 24sec off the pace, with Saravalle finishing in 1:32:37 for bronze.

Francisco Javier Prados Garrido of Spain earned the under-23 title with a sixth-place finish in the race in 1:38:19.

In the women's race, Diedericks set the pace on the first run, clocking 23:29 to head into transition 37sec ahead of Slovakia's Kristina Lapinova.

Diedericks continued her domination of the race on the bike with a 1:09:23, despite a flat tyre on the final descent.

She closed out her victory on the run with a finishing time of 1:45:51.

Diedericks finished more than seven minutes clear of Siwtzerland's Diede Diederiks, who notched 1:45:41.

Eva Garcia Gonzalez of Spain took bronze in 1:55:52, finishing nine seconds clear of Lapinova.

"I’ve only been mountain biking since I was 27, but I love all this stuff," Diedericks said afterwards.

"I stayed with the Swiss athlete for the first half of the run but when it got a little more technical I was able to get away and then I just really tried to hit the watts on the bike.

"I got a flat on the second bike lap but it was downhill from there so not too bad, I was able to use it on the corners a bit."

Norway's Julie Meinicke won the under-23 crown with an eighth-place finish in 2:04:04.

No elite competition is scheduled tomorrow, with the World Championships resuming on Friday (May 5) with the cross triathlon events.