Watch the video highlights from the women’s race
Watch the video highlights from the men’s race
Suunto Ambassador Helen Jenkins (GBR) won her second ITU Dextro Energy World Championship Series (WCS) title after finishing runner-up to Andrea Hewitt (NZL) at the Grand Final in Beijing China on September 11, 2011.
A consistent finisher throughout the seven-leg series, Jenkins, who uses a Suunto t6d to monitor her training sessions across all three disciplines, had won the previous round in London and won the overall WCS with 4023 points to Hewitt’s 3836. Sarah Groff of the USA was third overall.
After the 1.5km swim section, Jenkins and Hewitt made up part of a 15-strong bike breakaway that opened up a two-minute gap on the chasers during the 40km bike leg. Going into the 10km run, Hewitt and Jenkins quickly forged ahead but the Kiwi was too strong at the finish and she crossed the line in 1hr 58min 26sec, 14 seconds in front of Jenkins.
“That was a really tough day, I’m so happy.” Said Jenkins. “I just didn’t have it at the end to go past Andrea, it would have been awesome to take the win here but I’m just so pleased to win the world champs again, amazing,”
“Andrea just had a really big kick down the end that I couldn’t hang on to, I tried to go with it and then my legs just went. It was a really tough day, in the front group we all worked really hard on the bike and for once the breakaway stayed away. This a course that you have to be strong over all three disciplines and if you’ve got any weakness, like you could see today, you just end up at the back of the race.”
As well as winning in London, Jenkins was second at the Madrid, Spain and Kitzbuehel, Austria WCS events, and fourth in Lausanne, Switzerland. She was part of the winning four-athlete Great Britain squad that won the Team World Championships, also in Lausanne. Her first world championship title came in 2008 on a cold soggy day in Vancouver, Canada, and since then she has regularly featured at the top of the elite women’s results tables.
In the men’s event, defending World Champion and fellow Suunto Ambassador Javier Gomez (ESP) won bronze overall after a solid sixth place. Man-of-the season Alistair Brownlee (GBR) won the race and the world championship title with a 29min 49sec final run leg to finish in 1hr 48min 7sec.
Brownlee, 23, ended the season with three WCS race victories and 4285 points for his second World Championship title after 2009. His younger brother Jonathan was second overall with 3992 points and Gomez third with 3671.
The season will conclude with a WCS race in Yokohama, Japan on September 19, but any points gained will count for the 2012 series. The race was due to be held earlier in the year but after the earthquake and tsunami it was postponed.
Images by triathlon.org