Hewison, a former county level swimmer who was the 2009 Commonwealth mountain running champion, finished sixth in last year's World Duathlon Championships, but this year she finished top of the pile after regaining her lead over Germany's Jenny Schulz with a sprint over the final 50 metres, which saw her win by a margin of just two seconds.

"I had a lot of injuries last year, and wasn't able to train much, so this is a fantastic result for me," said the Loughborough-based athlete.

"I'm really, really happy."

The triathlon newcomer has a history of making good choices, as she demonstrated in 2009 when she was a winner on television's Deal or No Deal show.

Shortly afterwards Hewison was offered a place in her new sport through the trigold talent identification scheme - and decided to open that box.

"I actually applied as a bit of a joke and didn't really expect to get on, but I did and everything fell just right," she recalled.

"I filmed the show two months before I had even heard about trigold."

As Sandra Levenez of France, the 2010 runner-up, carried her early lead in the 10km run through to the middle section of the 40km bike ride, Hewison was in the chasing pack of five which caught up with her, but rode conservatively to avoid leading at any point.

Having conserved energy, the Briton was soon able to pass Levenez at the start of the concluding 5km run, and pulled nine seconds ahead on the first of two laps as Levenez ran shoulder to shoulder with Schulz.

The German made her big effort just outside the stadium to catch and pass Hewison, but the Briton's final effort was enough to get her across the line in 2 hours 2min 45sec, with Schulz recording 2:02:47 and Levenez taking bronze in 2:02:54.


The elite men's title went to Sergio Silva of Portugal, who finished five seconds clear of Roger Roca Dalmau in 1:51:15, with Dalmau's Spanish team-mate Victor Manuel del Corral Morales claiming bronze in 1:51:29 at the end of a race where the lead fluctuated throughout.

"There were many attacks on the bike, but we couldn't catch up," said Silva, who trailed the two Spaniards as he went into the final 5km run.

"I had to run very fast to make the podium.

"I felt very strong and knew I could make it if I ran fast."

He pulled even with the Spaniards quickly outside of the first lap and blew by them in the final two kilometres.

Silva slid past the finish line in 1:51:18 to capture the world championship title, while Roca was second in 1:51:23. Corral was third in 1:51:29.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]