Learmonth's early-season medal rush continues

The 31-year-old, who won two silver medals at last year's Commonwealth Games on Australia's Gold Coast, came home in 02:01:33 to add silver to the bronze medal she won in March's series-opener in Abu Dhabi.

Learmonth was unable to get the better of American Katie Zaferes, who has claimed back-to-back victories so far, but was nonetheless delighted to have hauled herself onto the podium.

"That course is brutal, so I'm really happy to have hung on for silver," said Learmonth, who is third in the nascent World Series standings.

"The weather conditions weren't ideal – the rain was torrential in the swim, so I knew I'd have to be careful out on the bike so not to come off. "But yes, I'm pleased to come away with a podium for my efforts."

British Triathlon performance director Mike Cavendish added: "Jess had a brilliant race and it shows just how well the last few months of training have gone for her.

"Overall, the team performed very positively and it's really all about athletes reaching their peak in the summer.

"I'm confident we're moving in the right direction ahead of our first Olympic selection race in Yokohama."

Elsewhere, Georgia Taylor-Brown was the next-best British finisher, finishing fifth in 02:02:22, while Non Stanford posted the fastest run time of the day (34:21) and came home in 13th.

Vicky Holland, a bronze medallist at Rio 2016, was 15th.

In the men's race, Jonny Brownlee led the bike pack for most of the 40km but the two-time Olympic medallist eventually slipped to an 11th-place finish.

Sportsbeat 2019