Jenkins grasps Olympic dream with Hyde Park win

Created On: 07 August 2011

Helen Jenkins achieved a dream result at the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship London presented by Tata Steel. She won emphatically in front of a home crowd on the proposed London 2012 Olympic Games course and is now in pole position to secure her nomination for TeamGB in 2012.

The 27 year old from Bridgend, South Wales swam and cycled a tactical race around the iconic and technical course, which passed Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park corner and through the centre of Wellington Arch.

Scotland's Kerry Lang did much of the work at the head of the swim and bike sections, with Helen remaining near the front throughout. On the run, Jenkins made a decisive burst along with Jodie Stimpson, but Emma Jackson, the Australian Under 23 World Champion, was the only athlete attempting to live with Jenkins' blistering pace.

After two and a half of the four run laps, Jenkins broke away from one of the best triathlon fields ever assembled.

She said: "It is really special to me, with two podiums here in the last two years. It's special because it's the Olympic course, but the crowd support is amazing. I hope everyone enjoyed watching, the support was fantastic, so thank you.

"I have had a bit of a cold leading up to the race, so I haven't done my usual training and have tried to keep everything easy, so I felt a little bit flat on the bike.

"On the run, I ended up at the front out of transition, and I just kept running and running. It wasn't until the blue carpet at the end, that I relaxed - I am so happy.

"Thank you to everyone: the British Triathlon staff and my husband who is my coach, who have been so supportive this week, they have really helped with my performance. It's the guys behind the scenes that really help fine tune the performance."

Jodie Stimpson finished 14^th, having had a promising first half of the run, before fading slightly over the second 5km. Vicky Holland had to switch bikes in the final minutes before the start of the race when her own had a mechanical failure during the warm up. She finished 17^th. Non Stanford was 39^th and Lang 52^nd.

USA's Gwen Jorgensen had a breakthrough performance in second and Germany's Anja Dittmer. Olympic Champion, Emma Snowsill, was 5^th.

The British Triathlon Olympic selection policy requires athletes to finish on the podium at either Hyde Park or the Grand Final in Beijing next month. Athletes also need to have finished on the podium at one other Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series round.

Results:

1.Helen Jenkins, GBR, 2:00:34

2. Gwen Jorgensen, USA, 2:00:41

3. Anja Dittmer, GER, 2:00:49

4. Emma Jackson, AUS, 2:00:51

5. Emma Snowsill, AUS, 2:00:52

14. Jodie Stimpson, GBR, 2:01:31

17. Vicky Holland, GBR, 2:01:44

39. Non Stanford, GBR, 2:03:13

52. Kerry Lang, GBR, 2:05:38

Tags: news,women,london2012