ITU World Champions, Flora Duffy and Mario Mola were comfortable winners in Hamburg today as Britain’s athletes chalked up four top twenty finishes across the men’s and women’s sprint races.

Hamburg marked the fifth round of the ITU World Triathlon Series and attracted typically large crowds. The women’s race featured five British athletes and Jess Learmonth was first to show in an early bike break with Duffy and Kirsten Casper (USA). However, Duffy was too strong and rode and ran away for the win.

By the start of the 5km run, Learmonth’s cycling advantage had been eroded by the chasing group, and the fast runners too control of the race for silver and bronze. Sophie Coldwell came through to eleventh place, the best of the British results today. Learmonth and Lucy Hall secured top twenty finishes.

The men’s race featured the big three Spaniards, Fernando Alarza, the current Series leader, Mario Mola, and Javier Gomez as well as four British athletes. Sadly, Jonathan Brownlee was unable to race through illness, and early in the race, Alarza crashed in the transition area after the first lap of the bike.

Tom Bishop was in a strong position throughout much of the 20km bike leg, but lost places coming into the second transition. He started the 5km run off the pace, but recovered to 12^th place as Mola claimed a comfortable win. A long sprint between Jake Birtwhistle (AUS) and Ryan Sissons (NZL) saw Birtwhistle claim the silver medal for the second year in a row.

Tomorrow sees the Mixed Relay World Championships at 1:45pm UK time. USA are the defending champions and Great Britain will confirm team members in the morning.