France’s Cassandre Beaugrand earned her fourth straight win in the World Triathlon Championship Series as Britain’s Beth Potter came second in Weihai.
Olympic champion Beaugrand surged away in the final kilometre of the 10km run to finish in one minute 49.20 seconds and maintain her perfect record in this season’s Championship Series.
Beaugrand’s victory in China followed a thrilling tussle up until the final stretch, as Olympic bronze medalist Potter finished six seconds behind the 29-year-old.
Germany’s Lisa Tertsch was third, a further 18 seconds back.
“This one was definitely not easy,” said Beaugrand.
“I was feeling great on the swim, great on the bike. The run was quite hard with Beth pushing the pace. I just tried my best to keep up and trust my finish.”
Beaugrand exited the two-lap 1500m swim in third behind Britain’s Tilly Anema and Brazil’s Vittoria Lopez.
After a close bike section, where a pack of more than 30 cyclists merged together at the front, Beaugrand, Potter and Tertsch started to break away on foot.
In the final lap as Tertsch started to fade away, Potter fought valiantly but she could not keep in touch with Beaugrand’s searing pace.
The men’s race was won by Switzerland’s Max Studer, who finished in 1:41:08.
Spain’s David Cantero del Campo finished 10 seconds behind, with Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk in third, a further seven seconds back.
There is one more regular-season event in the Czech Republic on 13 September, before the Grand Final in Spain on 23 September.