The 24-year-old Welshwoman, the world under-23 champion, crossed the line in 2 hours 4min 39sec to beat Germany's Anne Haug by 26 seconds with another Briton, Jodie Stimpson, coming third for the second consecutive World Championship Series race. 

Stanford and Stimpson were prominent throughout the race, pushing the pace on the bike to catch the early breakaway riders after the swim.

Team-mate Vanessa Raw made a big contribution to keeping the pace high during the hilly bike ride around the Casa de Campo park, which ensured that the current world number one, Gwen Jorgensen was unable to catch them.

Stanford made an immediate break for the front out of the second transition.


"The plan was to go off really hard in the run which I did," Stanford said.

"And I'm not going to lie, in the second lap of the run I thought, 'Oh no, I've gone off far too hard'.

"But I managed to hold it together and I could see the gap increasing which gives you confidence and I managed to hold on. I'm not sure how but I'm absolutely pooped now."

Jorgensen, winner of the last two World Championship Series races in San Diego and Yokohama, finished strongly but Stimpson held her off. 

But Jorgensen maintained her overall position at the top with Stimpson third and Stanford fifth.

British Triathlon performance director, Brendan Purcell was pleased with the performances:.

"It's the start of the three year build up to Rio [2016], so it's a good opportunity to try new things and do things differently," he said.

"We've never got two British women onto a World Triathlon Series podium before so we're definitely going in the right direction."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]