Having won a IAAF cross country medal with the Great Britain Athletics team in March, Taylor Brown has missed significant run training with injury. Despite this, she displayed maturity and talent to claim the European title.

 

Taylor Brown was joined by Sain Rainsley, 16, and Florie McLeash, 17, who rode up to her during the bike leg. She made a decisive move into the second transition to open up a small lead, which she carried through to the run. She had the luxury of being able to cruise the final stages into the finish.

 

She said: “It’s amazing to retain the title! I tried not to think about it coming into the race as I find it puts too much pressure on. I didn’t know where my running was at but, yeah, it worked!”

 

Unsure of her running form, there was a great emphasis on the bike leg. She said: “I had a great bike. I stayed at front and did a lot of work because I knew there were some good runners in the second group.”

 

She added: “On the last lap there was a crash on the corner so I shouted to Emma (Sharkey) from Ireland and the German girl to go go go! I only started back running again three or four weeks ago so I wanted to work hard on the bike, and it worked because the German girl won a medal too.

 

“On the run I kept looking back the whole time as my legs didn’t feel fantastic, but obviously they didn’t catch me. I’ve now got the relay to look forward to on Sunday.” 

 

Britain’s elite women, Vicky Holland, Lois Rosindale and Vanessa Raw race this afternoon. The elite junior and senior men’s events are tomorrow and the Age Group races too place this morning (standard distance) and tomorrow morning (sprint distance). Britain’s Paratriathlon squad is set to race on Sunday.

 

Results:

1. Georgia Taylor Brown, GBR, 58:46

2. Laura Lindemann, GER, 59:03

3. Angelica Olmo, ITA, 59:11

12. Sian Rainsley, GBR, 1:00:40

 

DNF Florie McLeish, GBR