The American joins Alistair Brownlee as the only athlete to win five World Triathlon Series events in one season - Brownlee completed the feat in 2009 - but unlike the Briton, she did it by winning five consecutive races, starting in Yokohama, before moving on to London, Chicago and Hamburg.

Despite not competing in the penultimate season meeting in Stockholm last week, Jorgensen came to Canada knowing that a 16th place or better would secure her the overall World Series title, such was her dominance so far this year.

But the American was determined to end the season on a high and she duly delivered by making up more than a minute on the final 10-kilometre run to eventually finish 16 seconds ahead of New Zealand pair Andrea Hewitt and Nicky Samuels, who finished second and third respectively.

Hewitt's second consecutive runner-up spot enabled her to secure third on the overall rankings behind Sarah Groff of the United States who finished fourth today.

Gwen Jorgensen reeled in the New Zealand duo of Andrea Hewitt and Nicky Samuels on the 10km run ©ITU



Commonwealth Games champion Jodie Stimpson came to Edmonton lying in second place on the rankings but an uncharacteristically poor performance saw her cross the line in 13th position and slip from second to fourth on the final standings.

In truth, the Briton needed to win and hope that Jorgensen had an extremely bad day to harbour any hopes of being crowned world champion.

After a solid swim, Jorgensen negotiated the 20km bike leg with the help of compatriot Sarah Hoskins, who managed to keep the deficit down to just over a minute on the leading group that included Hewitt and Samuels as they made the transition to the run.

However, Jorgensen is a master of the final leg and she began eating into the deficit with every stride and by the third lap she had caught up with the New Zealand duo before powering ahead and crossing the line to take for first World Championship title in a time of 2hours 5mins.

Gwen Jorgensen's victory in Edmonton was her fifth of a remarkable season ©ITU



Jorgensen finished the season with 5,085 - the highest points total in World Triathlon Series history - to become the athlete to break the 5,000-point barrier.

Her margin of victory over Groff -1,098 - also smashed the previous record of Spain's Javier Gómez, who won the World Triathlon Series by 650 points in 2010.

"I don't think it's really sunk in at all," said a modest Jorgensen afterwards.

"I didn't really execute too well in the swim and first lap of the bike I got a little nervous and let that get to me.

"I just had to try and reel it back in.

"Sarah Haskins was huge today.

"I'm really happy."

Meanwhile, Dorian Coninx of France followed up his Junior World Championship win last year by taking the men's Under-23 world title in a time of 1.53:06 ahead of Britain's Marc Austin and Gordon Benson.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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