Germany’s Anne Haug overcame a tough course and stiff opposition to win the 2012 ITU World Triathlon Series Grand Final in Auckland, New Zealand. The victory was the finishing touch to her breakthrough season and also catapulted her to number two in the overall series rankings, making her the ITU World Championships silver medalist.
Haug clocked a time of 2:10:48, while Bermuda’s Flora Duffy finished 13th overall with a time of 2:12:20.
Sandwiched between the Under23 women’s and men’s races, 44 elite women began the day with a chilly two-lap 1.5km swim. Rachel Klamer emerged from the water first, followed closely by Aileen Morrison, Sarah Groff and Jessica Harrison. Also in the front pack were Norden and Erin Densham, which looked to set up a tremendous clash for the World Championship.
Haug attacked on the bike early and bridged up to bring her and the rest of the chase group even with the leaders on the third lap. Further down the field, a group of about ten women were still in pursuit of the leaders. Among them were stellar runners like Jorgensen and Ashleigh Gentle. But that pack wasn’t making any progress as they continued to lose time on the leaders with every lap.
Out onto the 10km run course, 12 women ran together up front including Norden, Andrea Hewitt, Groff, Riveros, Haug, McIlroy, Klamer, Ainhoa Murua, Jodie Stimpson, Duffy, and Juri Ide.
