ITU Banyoles

A pair of Americans scored victories at the Banyoles ITU World Cup Triathlon over the weekend. Gwen Jorgensen and Lukas Verzbicas both came away from the race with gold medals.

Jorgensen overtook Erin Densham from Australia to win the women's race. Densham had a nine-second lead over Jorgensen. But on the final lap, Jorgensen passed a tired Densham early. Once Jorgensen was by Densham, she pulled away and won her second world cup by 16 seconds. Densham finished in second.

Verzbicas won his first ever ITU World Cup race in his debut. During the run portion of the triathlon, Verzbicas was running side-by-side with France's Laurent Vidal and Russia's Dmitry Polyanskiy. All three ran together until the final lap when Vidal and Verzbicas surged ahead of Polyanskiy and dropped him. Vidal had a small lead until Verzbicas sped up with a half of lap to go, leaving behind Vidal. Verbicas won his first World Cup title by 17 seconds over Vidal.

Photo Credits:

Top: The elite women's winners: gold medalist Gwen Jorgensen of the U.S., center, Australian silver medalist Erin Densham, left, and bronze medalist Ashleigh Gentle stand on the podium at the 2012 Banyoles ITU World Cup Triathlon in Banyoles, Spain on June 17, 2012. (AP Photo/ITU, Janos Schmidt)

Bottom: The United States' Lukas Verzbicas celebrates his first career ITU World Cup title at the 2012 Banyoles ITU World Cup Triathlon in Banyoles, Spain on June 17. (AP Photo/ITU, Janos Schmidt)