MICHELLE Parsons, of Worcester Triathlon Club, opened her 2008 international racing season in fine style, finishing third in the European Powerman Championships in Horst en der Maas, Holland.

Holland has always been a good country for duathlon races with the local communities fully supporting road closures and town centre venues making the courses much more spectator friendly.

This year was no different and, although similar to the course used in 2007, the bike course was re-routed to make the most of the fast flat roads of the Netherlands. The race started at 9am when temperatures were still in single figures and the athletes lined up for six 2.5km laps of the town centre.

The race attracted most of the big names from the duathlon world, including both the silver and bronze medallists from October's World Championships in Richmond, USA.

Not surprisingly, the race began at a fierce pace with the first three female athletes covering the opening 10 kilometres in less than 36 minutes.

Parsons sensibly paced herself and, throughout the first 15km, gradually worked her way up the field into fifth place.

Going into transition, the leaders were Great Britain's World Championship silver medallist Michelle Lee, followed by Mariska Kramer from Holland just ahead of her compatriot Yvonne Van Klerken.

The trio had a lead of approximately two minutes over another British athlete, Emma Dews, in fourth place. Parsons' run split for the 15km, including transition, was 55 minutes and 46 seconds.

The athletes were faced with a three-lap bike course taking in some of the strongest head and tailwinds that many would have experienced, so confidence and strength on the bike was paramount.

By the end of the first lap on the bike, Lee had stretched her lead over all the chasers with Van Klerken one minute 30 seconds back.

Parsons, who had moved up to third, was almost three minutes back. Kramer and Dews were struggling with the winds, with the latter losing a huge amount of time and dropping back to 13th position on just the first lap of the bike.

By the end of the second lap, Lee had consolidated her lead over Van Klerken in second at 1:30 and 3:30 over Parsons.

As the leaders moved away from the field, one surprise was the increasing speed of Suzanne Svendsen, from Denmark, who slowly worked her way up from eighth on the first run to fourth just 2:15 behind Parsons at the end of the bike section.

Back on the second run, Lee was looking tired but holding her form well. Van Klerken was also suffering but although Parsons managed to run a faster final three 7.5km laps, the gaps were too big to close.

Lee crossed the line first in 3:05.48, followed by Van Klerken (3:07.19), while Parsons rounded off the podium positions in 3:09.13.

The result equals her best performance in the Powerman European Championships and the undoubted improvements in her running strength bode well for the rest of the season in long distance duathlon.

Her next major race takes place in Belgium on June 1 in the ITU-sanctioned race in memory of Benny Van Steelant, who passed away last year following a training ride collision with a motor vehicle.