In the women's elite race, Shulgina repeated her performance from last year as she defended her Antalya triathlon title and led home a Russian one, two, three.

The 22-year-old had to fight from 25 seconds behind after the swim as she gradually closed the gap over the 40 kilometre ride before blowing away the field in the run.

The 2010 Russian sprint triathlon junior champion ended the race seven seconds ahead of compatriot Elena Danilova in 1 hour 59min 36sec, with Alexandra Razarenova a further six seconds back in third.

The men's race saw Bryukhankov and teammate Ivan Tutukin sandwich Frenchmen Dorian Coninx on the podium as seven Russian's finished in the top 10.

The top five positions were pretty much decided by the swim as the winds made the waves very difficult to fight.

Tough conditions in the water saw the men's top five almost settled after just the swim as Alexander Bryukhankov stormed to victory in a Russian dominated race ©AFP/Getty Images



The first lap saw Russian domination with Igor Polyanskiy leading Bryukhankov out of the water and Denis Vasiliev just behind him, followed by Andrey, the younger Bryukhankov and a hatless Coninx.

This leading pack increased its lead to over a minute as they set out on the bikes before a change in the winds reduced the deficit to around 45 seconds.

Out on the run Bryukhankov burst out of transition and extended his lead to 20 seconds but Coninx was hanging onto the chasing Russians.

The Frenchman did all he could to close the gap but fell eight seconds short as Bryukhankov finished in a time of 1:46:44.

Despite being over a minute behind the lead group, a stunning run by Tutkin saw him catch up with the pack and steal a podium position from under the noses of four of his Russian teammates.

With the Russian Triathlon Federation using the event to finalise its selection for the upcoming European Championships in Kitzbühel, the nation's athletes had huge pressure to perform.

The triathletes appeared to take this in their stride however as 12 Russian's finished within the top 10 of the two elite races.

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