Jenkins grabs early win

Former World Champion Helen Jenkins won the 2011 Clermont ITU Sprint Triathlon Pan American Cup on Saturday. The event doubled as the USA Triathlon Elite Sprint Championship and attracted the best of North American talent to Florida.



The event marked a good opportunity for an early season race ahead of the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championships Series starting in Sydney next month.



Sara McLarty made the early pace in the swim, as expected, with Jenkins leading the charge of athletes behind. On the bike, Jenkins rode to the front before finally breaking away from the pack to claim the win.



Britain’s Non Stanford and Kerry Lang claimed fifth and sixth place respectively.



Todd Leckie recorded an excellent forth place finish in the men’s race. The Eastbourne based medical student missed much of last season following a training accident, but has shown great determination to recover quickly and deliver some top performances.



Todd commented: “I was very happy with my race. The race came together on the bike so there was a huge pack coming in to T2, I made a couple of errors and didn't have my greatest transition but managed to get the front and run with the leaders for 4km before losing touch and settling for fourth. The British girls had great races, Helen absolutely dominated and looked in a different class with Kerry and Non pushing the pace in the chase pack on the bike and run.”



2011 Clermont ITU Sprint Triathlon Pan American Cup, Florida, USA, Saturday 5 March



Women’s Result

1 Helen Jenkins, GBR, 55:05

2 Sarah Haskins, USA, 55:52

3 Gwen Jorgensen, USA, 55:57

5 Non Stanford, GBR, 56:53

6 Kerry Lang, GBR, 56:58



Men’s Result

1 Grégory Rouault, FRA, 50:28

2 Jarrod Shoemaker, USA, 50:31

3 Kaleb VanOrt, USA, 50:34

4 Todd Leckie, GBR, 50:47

DNF Marc Jenkins, GBR