Vancouver, Canada (June 8, 2008) - Great Britain's Helen Tucker pulled off one of the most shocking upsets in recent triathlon history as she became the new triathlon world champion today in Vancouver, Canada. It was a thrilling sprint finish between Tucker and American Sarah Haskins down the final stretch. Less than a minute later, the fans were treated to another scintillating battle for the bronze with Samantha Warriner edging out Australians Erin Densham and Emma Moffatt. Shockingly defending champion Vanessa Fernandes was 10th, her worst ITU finish since a 20th place finish in 2003.

The Americans and Brits dominated out of the water holding the first five positions including Haskins and Tucker, recent silver medalist at the Madrid world cup. Heavy pre-race favourite Fernandes exited the water in seventh place 14 seconds down.

Out onto the testing 40-kilometer bike course, six women made up the lead group including Fernandes. However, late in the first lap, Haskins and Tucker broke away and built a minute lead by the midway mark. On the fifth lap, the second chase group caught up to form one huge chase group of 34 women all in pursuit of the leaders Tucker and Haskins.

The bike portion was similar to last year with Haskins in a two-woman breakaway. Eventually she was reeled in late in the run by Warriner but she managed to hang on for the silver. This year, Haskins and Tucker continued to hammer it on the bike, increasing the lead to 1:40 after the sixth of eight laps, and then to 2:02 with one lap to go.

Haskins was first out of T2 with Tucker just five seconds back. A full two minutes later is when the next woman, Emma Moffatt, headed out on the flat 10-kilometer run course. Behind Moffatt was a number of strong runners including Warriner, Lisa Norden, Tanner, and Sweetland. Meanwhile Fernandes looked sluggish and was slow through transition to be one of the last in the group to get on the run course.

The two minutes was more than enough for Haskins and Tucker who ran side by side for nearly the entire ten kilometers until the final turn when Tucker powered ahead to become the second British woman to win an elite world championship. Haskins took the silver for her first ever world championship medal. Up against strong sprinters Moffatt and Densham, it was the guts of Warriner that proved to be the difference as she nipped Densham at the line in a photo finish. It was Warriner's first ever world championship medal. The Aussies went 4-5-6 with Felicity Abram coming across the line after Moffatt.

2008 Vancouver BG Triathlon World Championships
Elite Women - Unofficial Results
1.5km swim, 40km swim, 10km run
Gold - Helen Tucker (GBR) 2:01:37
Silver - Sarah Haskins (USA) 2:01:41
Bronze - Samantha Warriner (NZL) 2:02:32.85
4th - Erin Densham (AUS) 2:02:32.96
5th - Emma Moffatt (AUS) 2:02:34
6th - Felicity Abram (AUS) 2:03:35
7th - Sarah Groff (USA) 2:04:09
8th - Kate Allen (AUT) 2:04:14
9th - Debbie Tanner (NZL) 2:04:24
10th - Vanessa Fernandes (POR) 2:04:35
Official full field results will be available here

The elite races are standard Olympic distance: 1.5-kilometer swim, 40-kilometer bike, 10-kilometer run.

The Vancouver BG Triathlon World Championships are the 20th in ITU's history. The event began on Thursday with Glasgow's Kirsty McWilliam winning the junior women's title and France's Vincent Luis being crowned the new junior men's world champion. Age-group races were heavily affected by adverse weather conditions as strong winds and choppy waters forced officials to cancel the swim portion of more than half of the age-group Olympic distance races. Next year's triathlon world championships will be held at Australia's Gold Coast from September 11-13, 2009.