Beaugrand storms home to take gold for France

PARIS, July 31 (Reuters): France's Cassandre Beaugrand, inspired by thousands of home fans lining the streets of Paris, delivered a textbook run to claim an emotional win in the women's triathlon on Wednesday and earn France a first individual Olympic medal in the sport.

After the race was given the early-morning green light following pollution tests, Beaugrand was among the leaders from the start and then put the hammer down with a kilometre of the 10km run to go to take gold, breaking the tape in one hour, 54:55.

Julie Derron continued Switzerland's rich pedigree in women's Olympic triathlon, coming in six seconds behind to add a silver to the golds of Brigitte McMahon in 2000 and Nicola Spirig in 2012.

World champion Beth Potter also built on Britain's record as the most successful nation in the sport, with her bronze a further nine seconds back making it nine medals for the country in all.

After the postponement of the men's race on Tuesday due to poor water quality, the women's event got underway on time on the back of a rainstorm.

Defending champion Flora Duffy, the winner of Bermuda's only Olympic gold and appearing in a remarkable fifth Olympics at the age of 36, led the 1,500 metres swim out.

All the main contenders were in a group of nine that picked Duffy up but the morning's heavy rain, combined with several cobblestone sections, made the bike leg treacherous and there were a series of crashes.

The leaders - with the exception of Germany's Laura Lindemann - negotiated the seven-lap 40km route safely and, without any hills to break them up, arrived en masse for the 10km run.

After the first of four 2.5km laps, however, Potter, Derron, and local favourites Emma Lombardi and Beaugrand had forged clear.

The quartet ran together until halfway round the final lap when Beaugrand made her decisive move and the 27-year-old

was able to enjoy the greatest moment of her career.

Derron, who was at the front of the breakaway foursome for most of the race, said it was "a bit daunting".

Potter, who raced the 10,000 metres on the track at Rio 2016, said: "I'm so happy. I was going for the gold but Cassandre and Julie were just too good for me today.

Lombardi was a frustrated fourth while Duffy, despite being out for a year with a knee injury, took an impressive fifth. Britain's Tokyo silver medallist Georgia Taylor-Brown finished sixth.