Triathlon-Olympic champion Beaugrand shrugs off disastrous start to take world title

(Reuters) – France’s Cassandre Beaugrand recovered from a dreadful start at the women’s triathlon World Championship Finals in Torremolinos, Spain on Saturday to add a first world title to her Olympic gold medal from the Paris Games.

The 27-year-old crossed the finish line with a time of one hour, 56:44, with Britain’s Beth Potter and fellow Frenchwoman Emma Lombard completing the podium.

Heading into the race, Beaugrand needed a top-two finish to secure the world championship title.

Beaugrand veered off course during the first lap of the swim and was down in 30th place, but quickly made up a number of positions in the leaderboard with a strong second half.

“I made a mistake, and realised it was a big one because I lost so much time,” Beaugrand said.

“I was fighting to the end and thinking of last year when I missed out being World Champion so I’m really proud of this. I actually get seasick and the waves were quite high so I couldn’t see the buoys, then I realised I was on my own.

“I was already panicking, thinking ‘what am I doing’, I thought I was swimming strong but to the wrong buoy, so I had to push hard on the second lap to catch up.”

She did not look back from that point on as she kept pace with the lead cycling group and was less than a second behind then leader Olivia Mathias heading into the final transition.

Beaugrand took control of the race early in the final section, delivering a great 10,000km run and surging into the lead to cross the line 38 seconds ahead of Potter.

She was made to wait for her win after the British federation launched a protest claiming outside assistance, but the challenge was overruled.

“I just wanted this world title so badly and have dreamed about it for so many years,” said Beaugrand, who is the first Frenchwoman to win the title.

“Last year I was very disappointed finishing second. Nobody can take this away from me now. I was training hard and fighting all year for this one.”

Britain’s Vicky Holland, a bronze medallist at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, finished fourth in her final race before retirement.

(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Nashik, India, editing by Pritha Sarkar)