Silva goes gold in Yokohama

Four months after its postponement due to Japan’s earthquake and tsunami the Yokohama leg of the Triathlon World Championship Series took place on Monday.

After a two-lap swim in the warm waters of Yokohama Bay the field saddled up for a 40km bike ride.

With no major breakaways, the bunch stayed tightly grouped throughout the eight laps. It was on the 10 kilometre run that the field began to split.

Twelfth place at the start of the trek Joao Silva of Portugal surged clear at the end of the first lap and never looked back as he crossed the line in a time of

1 hour, 49 minutes and 21 seconds for his first world series win.

New Zealand’s Andrea Hewitt outgunned the rest for the second straight time to win the women’s title in Japan.

Despite a minor breakaway on the bike leg of the event a large group of competitors were back together again as they made the transition from wheels to feet.

After a virtuoso performance at last weekend’s Grand Final in Beijing Hewitt was again in fine fettle and powered out of the front to take the win for her third World championship series victory.

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