Learmonth and Hall led the swim in 9:07 and 9:10, with Rachel Klamer of Netherlands and Margot Garabedian of France 10 seconds back. Klamer attacked on the bike, but her 32:25 solo split lost another 20 seconds to the British teammates, who drafted one another with efficient precision.

Klamer pushed hard on the run, but lost another 11 seconds to Hall and Learmonth, who cruised together in the lead until they reached the finish chute. “We decided during the run that we would start sprinting once we reach the blue carpet and just to go for it and what happens, happen,” said Learmonth.

Hall had just a tad more in the tank, and she crossed the line in 59:34 with a 1 second margin of victory over Learmonth as they both clocked 6th-best 17:23 splits for the 5k run. “The plan was to use Cape Town as part of our training and have a bit of fun!” Hall told ITU media. ”We wanted to test some training tactics as well and it did work, but triathlon is very unpredictable and there are so many variables…so when it all works out it is just wonderful!”

Ai Ueda of Japan started the run 1:26 back of the leaders and 55 seconds back of Klamer and finished with a race-best 16:30 split which propelled her past Klamer for 3rd place.

“My favorite discipline is running and the weather was perfect today,” said Ueda. “I’m just so happy that I got on the podium again.”

Men