Emma Snowsill gave the triathlon-loving nation of Australia the gold medal that they have been waiting for since the sport made its spectacular debut at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

　　Snowsill and Emma Moffatt were able to turn brilliant runs in the scorching heat at the Ming Tombs reservoir on Monday into gold and bronze medals for Australia -- which has taken to the glamorous swim-bike-run sport like no other nation.

　　"To come from a nation so strong in triathlon, it's a fantastic feeling to finally bring home the gold medal," Snowsill said after her superb 10-km run split of 33:17 broke open a tight race with a dozen women even at the end of the 40-km bike ride.

　　"We came so close in Sydney and Athens that this makes up for those very close gold medal losses," said Snowsill, 27, who was not on either Australia squad but watched Michellie Jones take silver in 2000 and Loretta Harrop take silver in 2004.

　　"It's feels fantastic to do our sport proud and show them we're the number one nation," said Snowsill, hungry to compete in the Olympics after she was surprisingly left off the mighty Aussie squad in 2004 despite winning the 2003 world championship.

　　Snowsill, who channelled her 2004 disappointment into winning the world championship in 2005 and 2006, said she now had no hard feelings about missing out on Athens.

　　"I don't feel any regrets about not going to Athens," said Snowsill. "You move on. There's nothing you can do about it."

　　Snowsill, who stands just 1.61 metres and weighs a feathery 48 kg, appeared to be on a mission in Beijing.

　　With her fingernails painted in Australia's yellow and green colours, she emerged from the 1.5-km swim two seconds behind leader Laura Bennett of the United States, stuck in the top group on the bike before switching on after-burners when the run began.

　　"It was extremely hot and it's a really tough course," she said. Temperatures rose to 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) on the sun-baked course with almost no shade at the reservoir dam. She said she was in deep pain despite concealing it behind her sunglasses.

　　"It was a good poker face," said Snowsill, who is from Gold Coast, where the Australia team prepared in a sunny subtropical climate not unlike the conditions found in Beijing on Monday. "There are days in training where you're having an outer body experience. It was like that today. I trained hard and didn't want to leave any energy behind. I knew how many girls were in the pack and that this race had developed into a run."