France's Olivier Marceau became the first Frenchman ever to win the men's world triathlon championship in Perth Sunday overwhelming two Australians.
The 27-year-old from Nice finished a challenging race in 1hr 51min 41sec, 14 seconds ahead of Peter Robertson, who won the Sydney World Cup race on the Olympic course two weeks ago.
Australia's Craig Walton won the bronze in 1:51:59, just 10 seconds ahead of another Frenchman, Carl Blasco, while he and other runners had to combat rain, which fell for half the race.
In the women's triathlon Sunday, Australian Nicole Hackett's gold is now in doubt after Canadian runner-up Carol Montgomery protested that the 10km run was too short.
The International Triathlon Union's technical delegate Loreen Barnett confirmed the suspicions and a jury would meet later Sunday to consider what course of action to take.
Montgomery is triathlon's strongest runner. Her 25-minute 21.2 time shocked spectators after it was known that her distance traveled could have broken the men's world record. There was little doubt however that she would have reeled in Hackett over the full distance. She is expected to compete in Sydney's 10,000 meters this September.
Meanwhile on Saturday Marion Jones achieved a world record at the Penn Relays after competing against teams from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
Jones, the 1999 world champion at 100 meters, brought the women's US team to victory in the 400 meter relay as she clocked a world record of 42.33 breaking Franklin Field and Penn Relays - (Several Sources).
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