Charlotte McShane (AUS) won gold this afternoon in the U23 Women's World Championship race in Hyde Park, overcoming a scintillating-in-the-swim Lucy Hall and outsprinting Canada's Ellen Pennock in the final yards to finish in a time of 1:55:38.
Hall showed her supreme swimming skills and built up a comfortable lead of over 30 seconds in the chilly Serpentine, before being overtaken in the second half of the bike leg by a sizeable chase group which included 2012 bronze medallist Joanna Brown (CAN), Hanna Philippin (GER), Emmie Charayron (FRA) and Alexandra Razarenova (RUS).
Despite suffering a crash in the latter stages of the bike leg, Pennock picked herself up and put in enough work on the run to overtake Brown in the final stretch towards the podium, losing out to McShane by just one second. Canada's Amelie Kretz took bronze in 1:55:41.
“I’ve been training really well for the last few years but haven’t quite put it into performance, so I just cannot believe I managed to do it today,” McShane said. “I guess that’s the most special thing to me, is some of the names that have won this before and that’s when it really sinks in.”