Triathlon: Andrea Hewitt back on top of the podium

New Zealand's Andrea Hewitt celebrates her victory on the Gold Coast. Photo / photosport.nz

After six years without a world triathlon series victory, Andrea Hewitt has now won twice in a month.

The Kiwi turned 35 four days ago and proved too strong for the sport's young blood, following up her win at the series' season-opener in Abu Dhabi by running away with today's second event on the Gold Coast.

"Last week was my birthday but age is just a number," Hewitt said. "It's all down to my training. Today the swim and bike weren't up there but I had the legs on the run, and that's how the triathlon goes."

Sandwiched between her two victories, Hewitt was disappointed with her efforts at last week's event in New Plymouth, where she languished back in 20th place. But the Kiwi did learn a valuable lesson that day, having begun the run level with Japan's Ai Ueda before being blown away.

"She went out really fast," Hewitt said of Ueda's performance in New Plymouth. "So I kind of just copied her plan - what she did to me last week - and I was expecting her to run with me. But it was just me by myself today."

Hewitt's run time of 16:37 was tied for the fastest in the field and saw her record a time of 58:03 to narrowly hold off Ashleigh Gentle of Australia, who finished four seconds back.

"I knew my running was good, and that's why I went out at that pace," Hewitt said. "You never know how the race is going to go, but today I just ran that 5k at my pace and it was good enough to be on the front. I'm so happy."

Rebecca Spence finished the next best of the Kiwis in 19th, while Sophie Corbidge managed 28th and Nicole Van Der Kaay finished 30th.