Performances of the year: Brown wins WTS bronze in Bermuda
Joanna Brown became the first Canadian to reach a World Triathlon Series podium in five years when she took third in Bermuda back in April.
Joanna Brown ended a five-year national drought in 2019, becoming the first Canadian since Kirsten Sweetland to reach the podium at a World Triathlon Series (WTS) event in April.
Brown came into the 2019 WTS season with momentum. She won bronze at the Commonwealth Games in April of 2018, and then equalled her career-best with a second consecutive fourth-place showing at WTS Montreal in August.
After a bike crash forced her to DNF the opening race of the season in Abu Dhabi, Brown delivered a big performance a month later.
Sitting in 27th after the swim, the Carp, Ont., native got herself back into contention on the bike, pulling a chase group around the 40K course.
Ultimately leaders Katie Zaferes (USA) and Jessica Learmonth (UK) were too far up the road, but Brown used the day’s second-fastest run split of 34:37 to grab third place in a time of 2:02:05.
“I came out of the water and I saw I had some work to do,” Brown said post-race. “I was determined today, and I got it done.”
“On the run, it took me a little bit to get going, but I knew this was a tough course and you have to keep going after it. I was slowly picking my way closer to the leaders and was just so happy to finally cross the finish line knowing I was on the podium.”
The 27-year-old became the third Canadian to stand on a WTS podium, joining Sweetland and Paula Findlay (who won five races between 2010 and 2011). A few months later in June, Tyler Mislawchuk became the first man to win a WTS medal in Montreal, which we profiled as one of our performances of the year last week.