Jenkins on top of the world in Beijing

Created On: 11 September 2011

Helen Jenkins has won the ITU Triathlon world title following a second place finish to New Zealand's Andrea Hewitt at the Dextro Energy Triathlon World Championship Grand Final in Beijing. Second place was enough to secure the title and underline Britain's dominance following Alistair Brownlee's win yesterday.

A podium finish was necessary for Jenkins to win the world title for a second time. She last won it in Vancouver in 2008, when the champion was decided from a single race rather than a series.

The GE Great Britain Triathlon Team made a strong start with Kerry Lang, Helen Jenkins and Liz Blatchford dominating the swim. Vicky Holland got herself into the lead pack of fifteen strong cyclists that got away.

Jenkins and Blatchford, in particular, rode well on the hilly 2008 Olympic course and although Jenkins was slower through the second transition than most of the rest of the front group, she soon established a lead with Hewitt.

Cresting the final hill into the finish area, Jenkins and Hewitt were locked together, but it was the New Zealander who had more in her legs for the final sprint.

Jenkins said: "I'm so pleased just to win the world champs again, it's amazing!"

Commenting on her second place finish in the race, she added: "It would have been awesome to take the win here, but, at the end but I just didn't have it in me. Because we had such a big gap I just thought 'keep it steady and hopefully I'll have something left at the end', but Andrea really just had a big kick at the end. I couldn't hang on to her."

Liz Blatchford held on for eighth place, her best result of the season and remarkable considering that she is carrying an injury that prevents her from doing any consistent run training. The performance was testament to the hard work on the bike that helped the lead group establish over a two minute gap from the chasing cyclists.

Jodie Stimpson was 34th, Kerry Lang 39th and Vicky Holland had problems on the bike that saw her drop from the lead pack to an eventual 57th.

The final race of the World Championships saw Gordon Benson finish 11th in the men's junior event. He and Marc Austin (27th) are both just 17 and have two more years as juniors.

British Triathlon's Olympic Programme Manager, Malcolm Brown summed up Britain's performance this weekend. He said: "There have been some outstanding individual performances, and even those who have been having a bad day have flogged themselves for every position. It's been an uplifting experience."

He added: "We have three world champions with Matt Sharp in the U23 and the two seniors. It's exactly the sort of position you'd want to be in going into an Olympic year."

Photo: Delly Carr/ITU

Tags: news,helen jenkins,london2012

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