The Biathle-Triathle World Championships in Machico featured athletes from 31 countries ©UIPM World Pentathlon/Nuno Gonçalves

Ieva Serapinaitė starred at the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) Biathle-Triathle World Championships, winning the senior women's triathle title and helping Lithuania to win the mixed relay in Machico.

The former European modern pentathlon champion triumphed in 18min 30.90sec in the senior triathle race at Machico Beach, which featured 200 metres of swimming, 3,000m of running and 20 shooting hits from a distance of 10m.

Her compatriot Aurelija Tamašauskaitė was her closest challenger in 18:36.50, while Mexico's Mariana Arceo came through in third in 18:53.60.

Serapinaitė had earlier combined with Titas Puronas to win mixed relay triathle gold in 17:38.00, more than one minute quicker than France's Léa Fernandez and Paolo Singh.

The mixed relay required each athlete to complete 100m of swimming, 1,800m of running and 10 hits from a shooting distance of 10m.

There was further success for Lithuania in the mixed biathle relay through Tamašauskaitė and Puronas, who notched 14:50.00 to beat France's Eloise Combeau and Rémy Naceri by nine seconds.

Athletes were required to complete two running legs of 800m, divided by a 100m swim.

Fernandez denied Lithuania another individual triumph in the women's biathle, finishing in 15:08.10 to edge out the 15:09.30 recorded by Tamašauskaitė.

Individual biathle races featured two running legs of 1,600m and a 200m swim.

South Africa topped the overall medals table at the UIPM Biathle-Triathle World Championships ©UIPM World Pentathlon/Nuno Gonçalves
South Africa topped the overall medals table at the UIPM Biathle-Triathle World Championships ©UIPM World Pentathlon/Nuno Gonçalves

The men's title went to Ayan Beisenbayev of Kazakhstan, who clocked 12:19.00, with his closest challenger Switzerland's Alexandre Dallenbach with 12:36.00.

Beisenbayev also came out on top in the individual triathle race, notching 16:38.78 to stave off challenges from Dallenbach and Singh.

Junior and age group competitions were also held at the Championships, with South Africa finishing on top of the medals' table with 26 golds across four days.

In total, almost 650 athletes from 31 countries took part in Machico.

UIPM President Klaus Schormann declared the event a success.

"We have once again seen the very best of UIPM sports here in the beautiful environment of Machico," he said.

"It was so pleasing to see a record number of athletes coming from across the world to gather together, compete and enjoy the spirit and the power of sport."

The UIPM Executive Board member for development Viacheslav Malishev referenced the debuts of "new nations such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran".