Courtesy: USAT

U.S. elite Barb Lindquist can add a silver medal to her collection, but Great Britain and Spain were the winners Sunday at the International Triathlon Union (ITU) Triathlon World Championships.

Britain's Leanda Cave won the women's world title, completing the 1.5K swim, 40K bike and 10K run in 2 hours, 1 minute, 31 seconds. Spain's Ivan Rana thrilled the largely Mexican crowd with his victory in the men's race in a time of 1:50:41.

Both the women and men had to deal with high heat under a blazing sun. Temperatures were in the low 90s at the start of the women's race at 8 a.m. CST, and had risen to the high 90s for the men at 10:30 a.m. Humidity was 70 percent.

Things looked good for the United States at the beginning of the women's race. As expected, Lindquist (Victor, Idaho), Sheila Taormina (Livonia, Mich.) and Laura Reback (North Palm Beach, Fla.) were at the front on the swim, however Australia's Nicole Hackett led the group into the first transition. Australia's Loretta Harrop, Cave and Canada's Sharon Donnelly joined the front pack on the bike.

Taormina and Lindquist could be seen doing much of the work on the bike and even tried to break away to speed up the group.

Defending world champion Siri Lindley (Boulder, Colo.) joined a large but disorganized chase pack that fell further and further behind with each lap. The chase pack entered transition two minutes behind the leaders. In the heat, it was too big a gap to make up and Lindley finished the race in 12th.

Lindquist took the race lead out of the second transition, and looked to be in strong form on the first three laps. However, the heat took its toll on the final lap and, close to the finish, Cave made her move. Cave's teammate Michelle Dillon worked her way into third.

"I felt so easy running," Lindquist said. "I kept telling myself to be 'smooth and powerful' on the first lap. Then I still was on the second lap and the third."

Both Lindley and Reback, who finished seventh, credited Taormina for her hard work on the bike.

"I owe a lot to Sheila on the bike," Reback said. "She really worked hard.

"I'm bummed that Barb didn't take the win. She really deserved it this year."

Taormina, who placed 24th, admitted her run was hampered by pain in her hip.

"I knew my run wasn't going to be good," she said. "My job was to put our girls on the podium (by working hard on the bike)."

U.S. elite Susan Williams (Denver, Colo.) placed 20th and Kelly Handel was 43rd.

The large field of 82 male starters led to a rough two-lap swim. A pack of seven emerged from the water, led by New Zealand's Brent Foster, Great Britain's Richard Stannard and Ukraine's Vladimir Polikarpenko.

U.S. elite Hunter Kemper (Longwood, Fla.) exited the water 14th, followed by teammate Joe Umphenour (Belleview, Wash.) in 15th and Mark Fretta (Portland, Ore.) in 24th. Kemper dropped a bike shoe in transition and lost 20 seconds going after it.

The frontrunners were swallowed by the large chase pack, including Umphenour, Fretta and U.S. elites Andy Kelsey (Cupertino, Calif.) and Victor Plata (San Luis Obispo, Calif.). Kemper also worked his way into the front group.

Rana took control late in the run, completing 10 kilometers in 32:05. Peter Robertson (Australia) emerged for second and Andrew Johns (Great Britain) placed third.

Kemper led the U.S. finishers in 12th. Umphenour finished 18th. Fretta finished 21st and Kelsey was 23rd. Fleischmann placed 57th and Plata was 58th.

"It was just hot," Kemper said. "I had a bad bike to run transition and dropped a bike shoe on the transition from swim to bike. I had to work hard on the bike to catch up."

Umphenour, who had struggled with a cold before the race, was content with his placing.

"The key was patience. I didn't go out hard (on the run). I started easy and rolled into it."

Complete results are posted to the ITU web site at www.triathlon.org.