(Reuters) - Britain's India Lee and Denmark's Magnus Ditlev were the first winners of the inaugural T100 long distance triathlon on Saturday in Miami, besting a highly competitive field of the world's top triathletes.
The debut race of the newly launched series, staged on a route at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, included a 2-km swim in a man-made lake, 80-km bike leg on the road course and 18-km run on the racetrack's oval.
Lee, with a time of 3:27:12, edged reigning Ironman world champion and compatriot Lucy Charles-Barclay, who led the swim and bike but lost rhythm on the final run to finish second. Holly Lawrence rounded out the women's race podium.
"I knew I had it in me, in my head it was just a matter of time and to be consistent and sensible in the swim and on the bike. Today was the first time I've done a run that I am proud of," the 35-year-old said.
"I had my coach voice inside my head 'Don't go out to hard it's better to be steady and consistent,' but I was thinking, 'I'm going steady but I'm also catching Lucy,'" she added.
Ditlev, 26, who won the men's race earlier in the day, clocked a time of 3:09:08. American Sam Long finished second ahead of Frenchman Mathis Margirier.
"Great start of the season I'm super happy to take my first T100 win," Ditlev said.
"The entire day I felt like I was below the limit, trying to deal with the heat but towards the end I started pushing more," he added of going past Briton Alistair Brownlee, who led the run but lost pace and finished fifth behind Dutchman Youri Keulen.
Each winner took home $25,000 from a total race prize fund of $250,000 as the new series boasts more than $7 million in prize funds and contracts.
Jointly launched in January by the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) and governing body World Triathlon, the T100 has shorter races than Ironman's 3.5-km swim, 180-km bike and 42-km run but with two legs longer than the Olympic distances of 1500m, 40 km, and 10 km.
As many as 40 of the world's leading long-distance athletes signed up for a minimum of five races and the Grand Final.
The next event of the eight-race programme will take place in Singapore on April 13 and 14.