Müller showed her credentials with a fine display to take European gold in Sardinia in June and she was the dominant force once again in the German border town of Zittau, taking the win ahead of Bermuda's Flora Duffy and reigning champion Helena Erbenova of Czech Republic.

Duffy exited the water after the 1.5 kilometre swim with a 23 second lead over the rest of the field, which was led by Olympic bronze medallist Erin Densham of Australia, while Müller was 1 min 35sec off the leader.

However, it was on the 36km mountain bike ride that the German showed her class, reeling in the leaders on the 978 metre climb to open up a gap of 2:39 at the beginning of the 9km run.

Duffy tried her hardest to claw back the runaway German and did manage to reduce her lead by 21 seconds, but Müller's victory was never in doubt as she crossed the line in 2 hours 34min 20sec.

Defending champion Erbenova had to make do with bronze just as she had done in Sardinia two months ago.

Meanwhile, it was a much different story in the men's race as a thrilling finish saw Ruzafa take the win less than a second ahead of American Josiah Middaugh and New Zealand's Braden Currie.

American Josiah Middaugh came agonisingly close to claiming the men's cross triathlon world title in Zittau ©Getty Images




Home favourite Christian Otto and Costa Rican Leonardo Chacon were neck and neck coming out of the water, 10 seconds clear of the pack that included Ruzafa, while reigning champion Conrad Stoltz of South Africa was more than a minute back.

As was the case in the women's race, the bike leg proved to be decisive as Ruzafa tore up the steep ascent to pull ahead of the field by 2:45 at the end of the 36km trek.

Middaugh was out on his own in second followed by Currie and Frenchman Francois Carloni who were a minute behind.

The American put in a monster run as he chased down Ruzafa and had the course been a matter of metres longer then he may have overtaken the Spaniard, but as it was Ruzafa just held on for his first elite men's title finishing in an overall time of 2:34:33.

Currie held off the challenge of Carloni and a late surge by Austrian Michael Weiss to claim the bronze.

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