In one of the oldest running World Cups on the circuit it was triathlon veteran Andrea Whitcombe of Great Britain to top the podium for the first time since 2005. Whitcombe’s time of 2:02:48 beat her closest rival Felicity Abram of Australia by 46 seconds in the hot and dry conditions. Abram’s silver medal today comes off a second place finish at the Hamburg BG Triathlon World Cup one week ago. Beijing-bound Mariana Ohata of Brazil rounded out the podium in third a further 33 seconds back.

“I can’t believe it,” explained the 37-year old Whitcombe at the finish. “I’ve been so injured. I haven’t run at all in three months. I can’t believe I won.”

“It was a really hot day,” commented Abram. “Coming off last week from Hamburg, I was pretty happy with my second place there. To back it up again with second place here. I’m very satisfied. Consistency is my goal this year. To keep my ranking up as high as I can.”

From the starter’s horn it was Sarah Groff of the U.S. taking an early lead in the swim, exiting the water with local Margit Vanek of Hungary 23 seconds ahead of a group of four including Abram, Ohata, Whitcombe and Helle Frederiksen of Denmark.

After going out on her own for the first 6km and losing Vanek, Groff wisely sat up to wait for the group of four behind her rather then testing the mid-thirty degree temperatures solo. Once together the lead group of five immediately put a commanding two minutes on their chasers by the end of the first of seven short and technical laps through town. The lead grew to almost four minutes by the end of the 40 kilometre bike course leaving no doubt the medalists would come from this front group.

As temperatures continued to rise, the women hit the 10km flat and fast run course through the centre of town. As with the swim and bike Groff led out early in the run but was quickly passed by a charging Whitcombe and Abram. With recent personal best performances, early on it looked as though Abram would get her first world cup win. This was not the case however as Whitcombe stormed away after the first of four laps to lead out on her own, putting time into her chasers on each lap.

Waving to the thousands of spectators gathered, Whitcombe crossed the finish line comfortably in first place for her third career world cup win. Although not selected for the British Olympic team, Whitcombe shows she is a contender for the remaining four BG Triathlon World Cup titles.

“It’s hard to cope with not going to the Olympics when I think I could have done very well but I’ve just got to get on,” said Whitcombe. “It’s just a shame our Olympic trials weren’t in really hot weather.”

“Tiszaujvaros is my town,” added bronze medalist Ohata. “My second time here and my second podium.”

Having pushed herself to the edge early on, Groff struggled through the final lap, being passed by Ohata, and barely crossing the line on her feet. Despite one of the fastest runs of the day, pre race favourite Vendula Frintova of the Czech Republic missed the lead group out of the swim and would settle for sixth place.

For full results click here.