Harare-born rising triathlete Laurelle Brown has set a new personal best time, finishing in 55^th position at the 2013 ITU Junior World Championships at Hyde Park in London on Thursday, 12 September.

The 18-year old reigning Zimbabwe female junior sports person of the year was Africa’s best placed competitor at the Championships, which attracted the top 72 junior female triathletes from around the globe.

Brown completed the 1.5 km swim, 38.4 km cycle stage and the 10 km run leg in a new personal best time of 1 hour four minutes and 19 seconds in wet and cold conditions.

The former Peterhouse College school girl crossed the finishing line ahead of the South African pair of Charne Prinsloo and Robin-Leigh Jones, who finished in positions 57 and 58 respectively.

Brown also beat the South African triathletes at African Triathlon Championships held in Morocco in May.

USA’s Tamara Gorman produced an all-round display to her first ITU Junior World Championship title.

Gorman finished ahead of England’s Georgia Taylor-Brown who settled for second place while Germany’s Laura Linderman finished third position.

Brown booked her place for the World Championships after emerging as Africa’s leading female triathlete in the U’19 category in Morocco in May.

Brown is heavily tipped to make history by becoming the first Zimbabwean female triathlete to qualify for the Olympics in 2016.

Prior to her participation in London, Brown took part in a training camp at the Sunshine Coast Tri-Academy in Australia before concluding her preparations for the ITU Junior.