Swallow & Dibens win world titles

Swallow's victory in Australia came over twice the Olympic distance

Great Britain's Jodie Swallow and Julie Dibens won world triathlon titles at the weekend, taking Britain's tally of world champions in the sport to five.

Loughborough 28-year-old Swallow won the long-distance World Championships in Australia on Sunday, held over twice the distance of an Olympic triathlon.

Salisbury's Dibens, 34, won the Xterra off-road title, involving trail running and mountain biking, for a third year.

They join fellow champions Hollie Avil, Sophie Coleman and Alistair Brownlee.

Yorkshireman Brownlee won the World Championships over the standard Olympic distance - a 1500m swim, 40km cycle and 10km run - by taking victory in the competition's finale, in Australia's Gold Coast in September.

Avil is the under-23 world champion, while Coleman holds the world junior title in duathlon, a discipline governed by the International Triathlon Union (ITU) which replaces the swimming stage with a second running leg.

If you prepare well for these races you give yourself every possible chance

Jodie Swallow

"Everything came together really well for me out there so I couldn't be happier," said Swallow, who had her funding cut after missing the Beijing Games through injury, having finished 34th in Athens four years earlier.

"Before the race everyone seemed to be asking me if I could handle the travel and the hot weather but if you prepare well for these races you give yourself every possible chance," added Swallow.

"I went to the Olympics in Athens and that was a tough experience but you learn and you move on, so to come back and win a world championship is very pleasing."

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Chrissie will go down as a legend of Ironman

Paolo73

In addition to the five champions recognised by the ITU, Britain's Chrissie Wellington is the reigning world champion in the women's Ironman event, organised by the commercial World Triathlon Corporation.

Wellington, 32, set the women's course record on the way to her victory in Hawaii earlier in October.