ITU World Triathlon Series: USA's Katie Zaferes wins Grand Final as GB's Learmonth takes silver
- Published
USA's Katie Zaferes has won the ITU World Triathlon Series Grand Final in Lausanne and with it the overall title.
Series leader Zaferes, 30, out-sprinted Great Britain's Jessica Learmonth, 31, in the final straight in Switzerland.
The pair dropped GB's Georgia Taylor-Brown, 25, during the run but she held on for third, with the podium mirroring their positions in the final standings.
Norway's Kristian Blummenfelt won the men's race, while France's Vincent Luis took the overall title.
Zaferes made the start line for the ninth and final race of the season despite a nasty crash in the Tokyo Olympic test event two weeks ago, which resulted in a broken nose.
Team-mates Learmonth and Taylor-Brown were originally awarded first and second respectively in that race, but were later disqualified for breaking race rules by crossing the line hand-in-hand.
"It was a tough race out there today," Learmonth said. "We were preparing for Tokyo but the course today was hard. I'm delighted with the performance and the overall result. I'm delighted for Georgia too. There were some really strong performances out there today."
Taylor-Brown said: "I found it quite warm and I didn't feel great on the bike to be honest. I'm so happy with the overall result though. I couldn't have asked for anything more this year. This whole year was all about Olympic selection and the Tokyo Test Event, so to get on the podium again is amazing and to share it with Jess is even better."
It was 29-year-old Blummenfelt's first ever series win - and a debut world title for Luis, 30.
Defending champion Mario Mola of Spain was second in Switzerland - not enough to land a fourth successive crown.
Spain's Fernando Alarza was third and Britain's Jonny Brownlee came eighth.