SARASOTA, Fla. 芒鈧珺次元官网网址� Canada's Joanna Brown won the gold medal in the women's CAMTRI Sprint Triathlon on Saturday.

Brown, from Carp, Ont., ran away from the field in the women's sprint event, clocking a golden time of 55 minutes 36 seconds in the 750-metre swim, 20-kilometre bike and five-kilometre run course.

"It was awesome. I just felt good to be good again," said Brown, who has been rebuilding after a couple of years plagued with injuries. "I really didn't know how it was going to go today. I was really nervous before the race because I didn't know where I was at. I knew if I had a good race I could win, but there was lots of questions in my mind, and if it was a bad day it was going to be a long one."

The 24-year-old Brown had a decent swim, coming out of the water with a string of girls just 15 seconds off the lead pace, which set her up to control the pack on the bike.

Brown took advantage of a penalty served by American Sarah True in the first lap of the run where she put her head down and hammered the pace to the golden step of the podium.

True was forced to settle for second at 55:58. Taylor Knibb, also of the United States, placed third with a time of 56:07.

Dominika Jamnicky, from Guelph, Ont., grabbed the final spot in the top five with a time of 56:40.

Meanwhile, Victoria's Matt Sharpe continued to validate a solid winter season of training with a third-place finish in the men's race.

Sharpe finished four seconds off the golden mark of 51:10 set by Mexico's Rodrigo Gonzalez. Eli Hemming of the United States was second at 51:12.

John Rasmussen of Ancaster, Ont., finished behind Sharpe just off the podium in fourth with a time of 51:28. Quebec City's Alexis Lepage settled for sixth place at 51:53.

The Canadian Press