The Portuguese star was beaten to the world title by her Australian rival in Switzerland earlier this month.

But Snowsill struggled to find her running rhythm, and Fernandes pulled away for a record-equalling 12th straight World Cup victory.

Britain's Andrea Whitcombe finished in eighth, with compatriot Vanessa Raw just making the top 10 in China.

The event was staged over the course which will host the triathlons at the 2008 Olympic Games.

The women�s race saw a re-run of the World Championships as Australia�s Emma Snowsill and Portugal�s Vanessa Fernandes went head to head once again.

The water temperature was well above that required for it to be a non-wetsuit swim and so the athletes entered the 1500m course in their trisuits. A break away pack emerged early on as the Australians, Annabelle Luxford and Laura Bennett set the pace up front with Vanessa Raw exiting the swim in seventh. Through transition a lead group emerged which contained Fernandes and Snowsill, as well as the British contingent of Leanda Cave, Andrea Whitcombe, Anneliese Heard and Raw.

This pack was shaved down further on the early stages of the bike as the pace was pushed on, with Raw doing much of the damage. Heard was one of those who was dropped as she failed to finish the bike section, whilst the pace at the front wound up. With many of the big names suffering from the non-wetsuit swim, there was a certain emphasis on ensuring that the likes of Debbie Tanner (NZL) and Anja Dittmer (GER) could not bridge the gap on the run by forging an unassailable lead on the bike.

Fernandes and Snowsill pushed the pace further at the head of the 20 or so quality athletes. With podium chances slipping the chasing pack seemed to relax and the leaders, including the three Brits, took a three minute lead into transition two.

Fernandes started the run strongly and took an early lead as Snowsill struggled to find her running form. Laura Bennett and Andrea Hewitt started just behind with Under 23 athlete, Nicky Samuels (NZL) in close contention. Tanner accelerated hard from the chasing pack, but could not catch the leaders as Fernandes continued to put down a relentless pace and slowly pulled away from Snowsill to take her 12th consecutive World Cup race victory, equalling Emma Carney�s record.

Luxembourg�s Elizabeth May stormed through late on to take third holding off Laura Bennett and Joel Franzmann (GER). Andrea Whitcombe managed to overtake Under 23 compatriot Vanessa Raw, in just her second World Cup race, in the final 300m as they took 8th and 10th places respectively.

Performance Director, Graeme Maw, said: "Vanessa [Raw] has really proved herself to be a World Class athlete out here today. It was a tough course with an impressive field, but she kept her composure and has produced a great result.

We have really achieved what we needed to do out here in China, and have successfully checked out the training facilities and course ahead of the Olympic Games. We have collected a lot of information from the athletes' performance and this will be of great benefit in preparing for Beijing in 2008."

1. Vanessa Fernandes, Portugal 2. Emma Snowsill, Australia 3. Elizabeth May, Luxembourg 4. Laura Bennett, Australia 5. Joel Franzmann, Germany 6. Sam Warriner, New Zealand 7. Andrea Hewitt, New Zealand 8. Andrea Whitcombe, Great Britain 9. Kathy Tremblay, Canada 10. Vanessa Raw, Great Britain ------------------------- 29. Leanda Cave, Great Britain 40. Henrietta Freeman, Great Britain