The Commonwealth Games champion was dominant from start to finish and eventually finished 96 seconds ahead of the competition in the first Olympic-distance race of the season with a time of 2 hours 01min 39sec.

Duffy's became the first woman in World Triathlon Series history to win a race after leading all three disciplines of swimming, cycling and running. 

After her win, the 30-year-old said: "I don’t think this moment is going to sink in for a while, but what I will say when it does is that this will probably be one of the highlights of my career.

"I mean this is incredible, the streets were lined, and it was just a phenomenal atmosphere, it was incredible.

"It was hard for me to control my emotions throughout that whole 10 kilometres [run], but with like 9.5km to go I just thought I need to smile and celebrate and soak this in."

The race for silver was a lot closer than the one for gold, but it was eventually Great Britain's Vicky Holland who claimed the second spot on the podium, her first World Triathlon Series podium finish for two years, after beating the United States' Katie Zaferes in a photo-finish at the end of the run.

Both athletes were credited with a time of 2:03:25.

On her dramatic finish, Holland said: "We were waiting five minutes to find out who it was to see who came second.

"I think all credit to Katie - she pulled me around a lot on the run."

The men's competition was dominated by Norwegian athletes as they took all three spots on the podium.

In only the third World Triathlon Series race of his career, Casper Stornes sealed the gold medal in a time of 1:54:47 with compatriots Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden completing the Norwegian clean sweep with times of 1:55:08 and 1:55:10, respectively.

After his win, Stornes said: "When I saw that they just let me go [on the bike] I saw I had a chance, so I just took it.

"I won, so I am very happy.

"I was thinking many times that maybe I should slow down and inhale a little bit, but I just pushed on and got more time."

The next leg of the World Triathlon Series is due to take place in Yokohama in Japan on May 12 and 13.