Vicky Holland admitted a first ever World Triathlon Series victory was more than she could ever have hoped for after she made a successful return from injury in Cape Town.

Holland took individual bronze and team gold with Team England at last year’s Commonwealth Games but was forced to undergo surgery afterwards to correct a troublesome foot injury.

She has slowly been working her way back to full fitness since and lined up on the start line in South Africa on Saturday for her first race since July.

There was little sign of rustiness though as she kept pace with the leaders after the swim before working with fellow Great Britain triathletes Helen Jenkins and Emma Pallant on the bike.

She then launched her bid for success with two kilometres to go of the run, eventually getting the better of American Katie Zaferes and Olympic champion Nicola Spirig to cross the line first and claim her best finish at this level since a fourth-place in Stockholm two years ago.

“I felt really good in training, but probably just for about the last month or so,” admitted Holland afterwards.

“It has been a tough run for me, I have had a lot of injury problems since January so I have watched the last WTS races but I was dying to get out there.

“This day was an experiment to see how fit I was, we thought I would be quite good for a 5km, but a 10km might be a stretch, but I felt really great.

“I knew there was not many of us there in the end so I thought I was going to have to dig and I turned around and I was the only one left, so it just seemed to play off in the day for me.”

Sunday sees the men's competition take place with Commonwealth champion Alistair Brownlee also making his first World Series appearance of the season following injury, although brother Jonathan sits out proceedings.

© Sportsbeat 2015