September 13 - Helen Jenkins and Jonathan Brownlee completed a sensational weekend for Britain's triathletes when they won bronze and silver medals on the final day of the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championships Series on Australia’s Gold Coast today.



It meant Britain finished top of the medals table with a total of five medals, two gold, two silver and a bronze, results which which will hugely encourage the sport in the build-up to the London 2012 Olympics.

Jenkins finished 27 seconds behind Australia’s Emma Moffat, who won in 1 hour 59min 14sec, to climb one place in the final overall World Championship series to fifth place.
 
Jenkins, who had won the world title last year under the sport's old format, was justifiably pleased with her effort but said it was not without difficulty early on.
 
The 25-year-old Welshwoman said: “I had a great start in the swim and I went around the buoy in about fourth or something and I started thinking we were heading the wrong way.

“I’d sighted the course before and I knew we had to head towards some buildings, and it was quite hard to see.
 
“So I started following everyone else because I thought maybe they changed the course and I didn’t realise and then I thought, no, and started swimming the other way to get on the back of the other girls,” she said.
 
After a poor bike-run transition, Jenkins was determined to close the gap between herself and the leaders, which at one stage was up to 50 seconds.
 
She said:  “I knew if I ran well I was in contention for a medal.

"I messed up my transition, my bike fell on top of me and I couldn’t get my foot in – it was a really, really poor transition.
 
“But as I ran on I had so much support down the course and everyone was yelling, 'You’re catching them, you’re catching them'…it was really good.”
 
Manchester’s Gold Coast-based Liz Blatchford, finished tenth, Kerry Lang was 21st and Loughborough’s Jodie Swallow finished 27th.
 
In a final day highlight, Jonathan Brownlee (pictured), the younger brother of newly-crowned men's champion Alistair Brownlee, fell agonisingly short of taking the junior men’s title when outpaced over the final kilometre of the run by Spain’s Mario Mola.
 
The Spaniard completed the course in a time of 54min 35sec with Brownlee crossing the line 15 seconds behind.
 
After a swim and bike leg that produced no real breakaways, Brownlee took the initiative in the run, opening up a handy five second lead over a tightly-packed field heading into the final lap.
 
With 1,500 metres left to run Mola broke away to join the front-runner.
 
And with the pair now out alone, and in a mirror image of yesterday’s Brownlee-Gomez clash in the senior contest, Mola produced a telling surge 1,000 metres from the finish line to which Brownlee was unable to respond.
 
The hot temperature and pace of the run took its toll on Brownlee who was distressed and in the hands of the medical staff for some time after the race.

After needing several hours to recover, the 19-year-old Yorkshireman finally emerged.

He said: "It was a good race, I'm absolutely shattered.

"I wasn't feeling that great at the start of the race to be honest or at the start of the run particularly.

"I ended up pretty dehydrated - I was on a drip and it took a couple of hours to come right."


"I gave it my best shot.

"The guy [Mola] was better than me at the end, he's a very talented runner.

"I'm going to take the winter off and do a bit of cross country and get back into triathlon in May."
 
Mola paid tribute to the silver medallist.

He said: “I knew when I caught Jonny one kilometer from the finish line I had him.
 
“He is a magnificent runner and I know that I didn’t want to look back because he would catch me again, so I just pushed all I could and I’m very happy,” he said.
 
Earlier in the day, University of Birmingham triathlon student Vickie Graves finished 26th in a field of 49 in the Women’s Junior title race after copping a battering in the water.
 
She said: “I had a good start but I just got smashed in the swim, it was like a washing machine.

“There was so much water my goggles filled up and I tried to get to the edge [of the field], but I just couldn’t get any space."
 
Frenchwoman Emmie Charayron took the honours in 1:00:22 while Australian Emma Jackson and the Netherland’s Rachel Klamer filled the minor placings.


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