Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championship Series visited Sydney, Yokohama, Madrid, Kitzbühel, Hamburg, London and Beijing.

[5] The overall World Champion is the triathlete with the highest score from four series events added to their points total from the Grand Final.

[1] The competition field for the race included 2010 Grand Final winner Emma Snowsill, who was plagued by injury in 2010, as well as all ten athletes from last year's the overall rankings were present on the men's side.

[1] In the men's race, the Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Johnathan, and Gómez exited the swim first and quickly formed, with eight others, an eleven-man breakaway group.

[12] In the women's competition, Laura Bennett and Andrea Hewitt joined Paula Findlay at the front coming out of the swim.

Once out of transition and on the run, Brownlee dropped Hayes and Colucci and went on to record his second Kitzbühel win, having won previously in 2009.

Behind him, Alexander Brukhankov, Brad Kahlefeldt, Sven Riederer, William Clarke and Laurent Vidal formed a group that passed Hayes and Colucci.

In the overall standings, Findlay had a perfect score and was approximately 500 points ahead of Díaz, Hewitt, Bennett and Jenkins who rounded out the top five.

[19] In the men's race, the bike portion had several groups attempt to break away without success as a peloton of around 50 riders hit the second transition.

The six leaders included Brad Kahlefeldt, William Clarke, David Hauss, Javier Gómez, João Silva and Sebastian Rank.

With 3 km to go, reigning Hamburg champion Gómez tried to kick away from the rest, only to see two kilometers later Hauss, Clarke and Kahlefeldt move away from him.

The top four all ran splits under 30 minutes as Kahefeldt became the seventh man to win a round of the Dextro Energy Triathlon Series.

Javier Gómez thought he needed extra practice after his poor results since Madrid as he won an ITU Premium European Cup event before heading to London.

[24] Alistair Brownlee, Alexander Bryukhankov, James Elvery and Ivan Rana managed to pull clear from the rest of the field on the bike.

[27] With the win, Jenkins won her first World Championship series event since the format began in 2009 and booked her place on Britain's Olympic team.

Series leader Paula Findlay finished 19th as Diaz and Hewitt leapfrogged her in the overall championship, with London winner Jenkins in fourth.

[29] In the men's race, a familiar trio took the first three spots and Jonathan Brownlee successfully defended his title out-kicking Gómez in the final few metres after earlier dropping his brother.

Alistair leapt to the top of the standings after Lausanne, allowing his only non podium finish of the year, 29th in Sydney, to drop off, and now leading his brother and Gómez into the final round.

[31] Beijing hosted the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series 2011 Grand Final where double points were available.

[32] For the women, Helen Jenkins would win her second World title if she finished on the podium in Beijing, a feat which she admitted was not a target in 2011.

Findlay and Hewitt who were third and fourth in the standings coming into the event with just one point separating them, with the winner of the battle in Beijing finishing ahead of her rival.

The Brownlees went into a lead by themselves on the run but the chase was never more than 10 seconds away which included Gómez, Riederer, Alexander Brukhankov, Dmitry Polyansky, David Hauss and Laurent Vidal.

With the New Zealander winning, Paula Findlay pulling out on the bike leg, and Riveros Diaz being hampered by illness, Hewitt claimed silver overall.

Also in the race were 2010 Aquathlon World Champion Richard Varga, Andrey Bryukhankov, whose brother was fourth coming into the event in the elite standings, amongst others who were likely to feature.

In the women's race the triathletes likely to feature were Zsofia Kovacs who finished seventh at the European Championship and in her home World Cup event.

Rebecca Robisch who finished 15th in the Sprint distance World Championships and All Africa Games bronze medalist Fabienne Aline St.Louis were also favourites.

[36] History was created in the men's race as Great Britain became the first nation to make a clean sweep of the medals in the under-23 category.

A lead group of 32 triathletes formed on the bike section until Tom Davison, Benjamin Shaw and Michael Poole broke clear.

In the run, a group of 10 quickly formed including Yuliya Yelistratova and Jerzyk, Kovacs, Kyla and Alexandra Coates (CAN) and Lauren Goss.

Also favourites in the field were Ron Darmon who finished fifth in 2010, All Africa Games bronze medalist Wian Sullwald and European champion Justus Nieschlag.