OLDBURY'S Jodie Stimpson battled to a seventh place finish in round six of the World Triathlon Series in Hamburg.

The women’s race on Saturday saw Jessica Learmonth exit the swim first after 750m and she got into a lead group which also included fellow Brit Georgia Taylor-Brown and defending world champion Flora Duffy (BER).

They stretched the lead out to 30 seconds before the chase pack caught them, driven by Stimpson and former Olympic Champion Nicola Spirig (SUI).

Spirig and Stimpson emerged first out from the bike-to-run transition but France's 21-year-old Cassandre Beaugrand soon took the lead, striding away comfortably to secure her first-ever WTS gold. Germany’s Laura Lindemann was inspired by the home crowd to take second and Katie Zaferes (USA) took third to stretch her lead at the top of the series rankings.

Non Stanford was the best of the British women in sixth, closely followed by Stimpson in seventh.

Stimpson then helped team GB to a fourth place finish in the team relay last Sunday.

The team of Vicky Holland, Jonathan Brownlee, Stimpson and Tom Bishop had high hopes of challenging for the world title, which Great Britain last won in 2013. However, they were just short of bronze after a race where the lead changed regularly.

Home team, Germany, were the first to strike with a narrow lead after the first leg before Brownlee then swam and cycled Britain back up to a joint lead, but lost time in transition ahead of his run.

When Jodie Stimpson started, the French had forged a lead for Beaugrand. Stimpson maintained a medal position but the race was building up to a frantic finish during the final leg and an inspired Jacob Birtwhistle came flying past Tom Bishop and Kevin McDowell (USA) to move Australia up to silver.

The young French team, anchored by Vincent Luis, claimed the world title followed by Australia and USA.