Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) triathlete Emma Snowsill took her anger out on the rest of the field to record a stunning victory in the ITU Elite Cup in De Moines, USA.

In just her second race back from injury, Snowsill got into trouble early in the opening swim leg and was left stranded in a chase pack of riders to be a full minute down on the leaders going into the final 10km run.

However, the world champion stormed her way through the field to catch the pacesetters before the 7km mark and went on to win by 16 seconds in a time of 1hr 59m 35s.

Fellow AIS team-mate Emma Moffatt out sprinted Great Britain’s Helen Jenkins in a desperate dash to the finish line to make it an Australian quinella.

‘I was a bit angry with myself because in the first lap of the swim I got annihilated,’ Snowsill said.

‘Maybe I have to use my elbows a bit more, or maybe it just took me a while to get back into race mode because I was certainly off the pace at the start.’

Snowsill said her goal over the first half of the run was simply to see if she could ‘get within reach’ of a lead group that boasted quality runners in Moffatt, Jenkins, New Zealand’s Andrea Hewitt and Great Britain’s Jodie Stimpson.

‘I caught them on the third lap (of four) and I didn’t want to hang around that group for too long because I didn’t want to come down to a sprint finish,’ Snowsill said.

‘At that stage Moffy was my main concern so I just keep going and tried to put some space between us and it seemed to work.”

In other results for AIS athletes, Courtney Atkinson continued his good form to claim third place in the men’s event, Dan Wilson recorded his best result of the season to come eighth, Brad Kahlefeldt faded to finish 29th, while Gareth Halverson was 50th.

Elite Women Results:

1.Emma Snowsill (AUS) 1:59:35. 2. Emma Moffatt (AUS) 1:59:51. 3. Helen Jenkins (GBR) 1:59:51.

Elite Men Results:

1.Tim Don (GBR) 1:50:20. 2. Kris Gemmell (NZL) 1:50:24. 3. Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 1:50:28.