Erica Hawley got her new season under way with a highly encouraging twelfth-placed finish in the World Triathlon Cup Napier, on New Zealand’s North Island.

Competing among a strong field of 41 athletes in hot conditions, the 25-year-old exited the water of the 750-metre swim in 10min 23 sec, clocked 29:24 on the 20-kilometre cycle and finished the 5km run in 16:45 for a total combined time of 57:46.

Sophie Linn, of Australia, claimed victory in 56:35, narrowly ahead of British duo Sophie Aiden (56:43) and Olivia Mathias, who rounded out the podium places in 56:44.

“The first race of the year always comes with a few unknowns, but I’m very pleased with how the race went and more importantly I felt strong and really enjoyed myself,” said Hawley on her Instagram account.

“Last year it took a while to get things rolling in the early races so it’s great to start 2024 feeling proud and see that racing reflects training.”

After navigating through the choppy swim, Alden and Mathias led the group out of the water and were able to make it to the first transition with a slight advantage over the small chase group.

However, it proved short lived as early on in the cycle they were caught by a group that included Eva Goodisson, Linn, Emma Jeffcoat, Paulina Klimas, Melanie Santos and Zsanett Kuttor-Bragmayer.

The group managed to stay clear for the bike section and made it to the second transition with more than thirty seconds advantage over the large chase pack which included a host of pre-race favourites Gina Sereno, Valerie Barthelemy, Natalie Van Coevorden and Ilaria Zane.

It was out of the transition that Lin managed to make her way to the front of a small leading group, before pushing on to clinch a first victory of her career in style.

Behind her, Alden and Mathias put on a show for the crowd, going head-to-head in a sprint for the line down the blue carpet, which the former narrowly prevailed in to claim silver by less than a second ahead of her compatriot.

In fourth and fifth, Santos and Kuttor-Bragmayer were able to hold the fast finishing Sereno, who posted the quickest run split of the day to take sixth.