Varga swam and ran his way to an impressive victory in the elite men's race, beating out tough competition in the shape of Russia’s Igor Polyanskiy by just seven seconds with a time of 25 min 42sec.

Featuring an extensive start list that also included 2014 Aquathlon World Championship silver medallist Ryouske Yamamoto of Japan, third place went to the United States’ Matthew Mcelroy, who blew past compatriot Tommy Zaferes and Croatia’s Luka Paliska on the run, splitting a 14:38 over the five kilometre course.

"I didn’t expect it would be that easy today, I thought it would be much harder because the field was pretty strong, as you can see with Polyanskiy and Mcelroy," said Varga, who will race later this week in the elite men's triathlon.

"So I thought they all would give me a struggle, but I feel really good today, on the run especially.

"So I am really happy that I could win today."

Meanwhile in the equivalent women's race, Russia reigned supreme with strong swimmer Anastasia Abrosimova taking top spot followed by team-mate Elena Danilova.

Abrosimova set the pace on the one-lap 750 metre swim along with compatriot Anastasia Gorbunova and Great Britain’s Hannah Kitchen.

But the pair couldn't contend with Abrosimova’s blistering tempo on the run and fell behind.

Instead it was Danilova that kicked into turbo to run herself into second place, followed by Macau’s Hoi Long in third.

Ben Sayles collected Canada’s first gold medal, winning the men’s under 23 crown by more than a minute ahead of Egypt’s Mohamed Elsaied and Mohamed Khaled in second and third respectively. 

With only two competitors in the women’s under 23 category, Venezuela’s Joselyn Brea went home the gold medallist by a margin of more than eight minutes, while Brazil’s Tamyres Domingos took silver.

Croatia's Elisabetta Vitasovic led from line to line in the junior women's race followed by team-mate Chiara Perusko in second before Egypt's Fatma Hagras rounded out the podium.

For the men, Venezuela's Yhousman Perdomo narrowly bested Russia’s Yaroslav Potanin for gold, followed by Croatia’s Luka Paliska with bronze.

The Para-triathlon Aquathlon World Championships saw a number of athletes crowned the fastest athlete to swim and run including Canada’s Brian Martin, Spain’s Daniel Molina and Daniel Llambrich Gabriel, the US’s Joel Rosinbum, and Great Britain’s Kerry Large and Melissa Reid.



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October 2012: Varga and Samuels earn ITU Aquathlon titles in Auckland