Emma Moffatt was again shaded in a spectacular sprint finish but claimed the overall series lead after securing silver in the Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championship Series race in Hamburg, Germany.

In what is becoming Groundhog Day for the reigning ITU world champion, Moffatt was less than a metre short of claiming her first major win for 2010, this time going down to Sweden’s Lisa Norden after the pair both recorded times of 1hr 53m 53s. Ireland’s Aileen Morrison claimed a breakthrough bronze just a few seconds back.   

Moffatt has now been involved in four sprint finishes in as many major races this year. She finished third in the series opener in Sydney, third in the second race in Seoul, and managed silver in a sprint for second at the ITU Elite Cup in Des Moines. That tale of consistency sees her narrowly on top of the series rankings with 2110 points, just four points clear of Japan’s Mariko Adachi after series pace-setter, Chile’s Barbara Riveros Diaz, sat out today’s race in Hamburg.  

“It’s a pretty good feeling, I guess, to be leading the series although it’s a little disappointing not to win the race after coming so close,” Moffatt said.

“It’s always on my mind to go out hard on the run to see if I can set the pace. I think every race I’ve had this year has been a sprint finish at the end and I haven’t been doing so well in them. I would have liked to have strung it out a bit over the middle stages, but every time I tried to put in a surge they came with me.

“I’ll just try and stay healthy, keep my fitness and maintain my consistency in racing and see where things are at when we get to Budapest later in the year (for the series grand final).” 

Moffatt, as is her trademark, led a large group off the bike, setting the pace and effectively ensuring the medals would be shared among a group of seven by the halfway stage of the 10km run. With a few hundred metres to go, Norden and Moffatt made their move and it was the Swede – last year’s series runner-up – who prevailed by the narrowest of margins. 

Perfect race conditions saw fast times recorded for the opening swim leg, with Moffat and fellow Aussie Annabel Luxford setting the pace. Emma Snowsill recorded a disappointing swim as a result of suffering some cramping and from there was not able to breach the gap and make contact with the main packs on the bike. She started the run leg four and half minutes down on the leaders and, despite recording the fastest run leg of the day, finished in 25^th place.

Felicty Abram completed a solid race to finish 10^th, while Luxford eventually came in 16^th.