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Emma Snowsill (AUS) won the gold medal at the Olympic Triathlon in Beijing and must have thought "what sweet revenge" after not having been selected for the team at that last Olympic Games. Pre-race favorite Vanessa Fernandes (POR) could not match the blazing speed of the Aussie and fought hard to win the silver medal and Emma Moffatt (AUS) grabbed the bronze medal.

The waters at the Ming Tomb Reservoir looked very smooth as 55 women started the Olympic Triathlon. The swim was soon lead by Laura Bennett, Sarah Haskins, Juri Ide and Magali Di Marco and these four athletes continued to set the pace in the water. There was no clear gap though and a fairly large group stayed together throughout most of the swim and exited the waters as such.

Daniela Ryf and Vanessa Fernandes pushed the pace early on the bike and soon a lead group of about 20 athletes emerged, with the the rest of the field somewhat shattered. During the second of six laps Nicola Spirig managed to bridge up to the lead group with Ai Ueda. At that time Marie Rabie had a incident on her bike bike and fell back to the chase group. By now the lead group consisted of Ryf, Fernandes, Ide, Ueda, Bennett, Haskins, Spirig, Emma Snowsill, Julie Ertel, Emma Moffatt, Helen Tucker, Christiane Pilz, Sam Warriner, Magali DiMarco Messmer, Jessica Harrison, Kiyomi Niwata, Andrea Hewitt, Ricarda Lisk, Debbie Tanner and Kathy Tremblay in the front group and Ryf, Spirig and Fernandes kept pushing the pace. Ertel got dropped each lap on the climb but clawed her way back to the front group each time. Notable folks missing from the lead group were Kate Allen, Hollie Avil, Erin Densham and Lisa Norden. An accident at the start of the bell lap takes a few chasers out, and Lauren Groves appears to be out of the race. But the front group virtually stayed itogether and they all frantically hit T2.

They headed out on the run in the order of Hewitt, Moffat, Ryf, Spirig, Snowsill, Ueda, DiMarco, Bennett, Harrison, Tanner and Fernandes, but Snowsill quickly snatched the lead and only Hewitt managed to follow, for a few steps at least. Then Snowsill put on the afterburners and gapped the small chase group of 5 that includes Fernandes, Hewitt, Bennett, Moffatt and Spirig. Spirig though started to loose touch with the chasers soon. After 1 of 4 laps Snowsill had a 15 second lead and surprisingly Ide from Japan started to work her way towards the front. She soon ran with Moffatt who had been dropped from the chasers. Bennett then accelerated and Hewitt got dropped and even Fernandes looked a bit in trouble, but before too long Fernandes was back in second place. Halfway through the run Snowsill now had 39 seconds on Fernandes, 44 seconds on Bennett, 47 seconds on Moffatt, 50 seconds on Ide and 53 seconds on Hewitt with Spirig another 10 seconds back. As she took the bell lap Snowsill looked very smooth despite being misdirected briefly and now had a 57 second lead on Fernandes and a 1:08 lead on Moffatt with Ide now in 4th at 1:22. Bennett looked a bit in trouble in 5th at 1:28. At this point only a disaster could have stopped Snowsill from winning and she easily cruised to victory and the gold medal in a time of 1:58:27. Fernandes finished 1:06 later and snagged the silver medal and Moffatt grabbed the bronze medal another 22 seconds back.

Results

1. Emma Snowsill (AUS) 1:58:27 (GOLD)
2. Vanessa Fernandes (POR) 1:59:33 (SILVER)
3. Emma Moffatt (AUS) 1:59:55 (BRONZE)
4. Laura Bennett (USA) 2:00:20
5. Juri Ide (JAP) 2:00:23
6. Nicola Spirig (SUI) 2:00:29
7. Daniela Ryf (SWI) 2:00:39
8. Andrea Hewitt (NZL) 2:00:45
9. Kiyomi Niwata (JAP) 2:00:51
10. Debbie Tanner (NZL) 2:01:06
11. Sarah Haskins (USA) 2:01:22
14. Kate Allen (AUT) 2:02:00
15. Ricarda Lisk (GER) 2:02:07
16. Sam Warriner (NZL) 2:02:13
18. Lisa Norden (SWE) 2:02:27
19. Julie Swail Ertel (USA) 2:02:39
21. Helen Tucker (GBR) 2:02:55
22. Erin Densham (AUS) 2:03:08