Erica Hawley clinched a second successive top-five finish in the space of a week in Chile, competing at the Triathlon Cup and South Americas Championships in Villarrica.

Fresh from a superb finish of fifth in Viña del Mar, seven days previously, the 23-year-old claimed another impressive fifth-place finish. Competing among the Elite Women’s field, Hawley completed the Olympic distance course of a 1500 metres swim, 40 kilometres bike and 10km run in a combined time of 2hr 4mins 37sec, crossing the line a little more than two and a half minutes adrift of race winner Luisa Baptista, of Brazil.

Having picked up where she left off at the end of the previous campaign, where she sealed consecutive top-15 finishes in the space of a week on the World Triathlon Cup circuit in South Korea, Hawley is now hoping to continue building on momentum in the coming months, as she sets her sights on qualification for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England in July.

“Every athlete hopes to keep improving and continue building on previous performances,” she said.

“One of my biggest goals is to qualify for the Commonwealth Games this year. Also, in May, the point qualification for the Olympics starts, so I will be navigating which races I should do and begin collecting valuable points.

“As always, my main goals are to be injury-free and put in consistent training. Results will come from focusing on the training and the everyday process.

“I won’t be racing until likely May so I’ll have more time to build and get in another solid block of training, and training that is more race-specific.”

In Villarrica, Japan’s Sarika Nakayama led the women out of the water, with Emy Legault and Baptista close behind. All three were part of a small group that stayed clear through the bike.

Nakayama and Legault led out onto the run course, but it was not long before the Canadian and Baptista ran clear.

Then, in the last of the four-lap 10km run, Baptista crucially managed to get away from Legault, holding a 10 second advantage to the line to seal a winning time of 2:01:01. Nakayama rounded out the podium places in an exact repeat of last weekend’s top-three in Vina del Mar.