By Dan Plouffe

For the second year in a row, Carp's Joanna Brown was recently named Triathlon Canada's junior female athlete-of-the-year for her 2011 season.

The highlight of the season for Brown – who struggled through injuries for most the year – was her sixth-place finish at the world junior championships, which she earned despite two crashes on the bike portion of the race in China.

The 19-year-old started her new season with a bang earlier this month when she won a Continental Cup silver medal in Dallas, TX.

U.S. Olympian Laura Bennett – the fourth-place finisher at the 2008 Beijing Olympics – won the race where over half the 25-athlete field did not finish in blistering heat. Brown was next across the finish line in two hours, 10 minutes and 50 seconds.

“I love racing in the heat so I think it played to my advantage,” Brown said in a news release. “I played things smart. You have to be intelligent in the heat and I was all day.”

Brown got out of the water after the 1.5 kilometre swim in the second chase pack where she worked well with a  number of Canadians to close the gap on the chase pack on the third lap of the flat 40-kilometre bike course, setting herself up for a podium charge on the 10-kilometre run.

“Laura pretty much controlled the front for the whole race, but I ran behind her early and gave her a good push,” added Brown, a world junior championships bronze medalist two years ago. “I learned I can’t get caught up in the what the girls I’m competing against have done and react only to how the race is playing out.”

Ottawa's Jennifer Hopkins was also recognized by Triathlon Canada as the country's top female para-triathlete.