Australian champion Brad Kahlefeldt has gained confidence for next month's triathlon world championships with a return to form in the World Cup round in Austria.
Kahlefeldt led after the bike leg and was only out kicked in the final 300 metres of a torrid run leg to finish third, five seconds behind Canada's Simon Whitfield and one second behind Federic Belaubra of France.
The result was a boost for 27-year-old Kahlefeldt who has suffered months of injuries and set backs and had only just returned from high altitude training.
Kahlefeldt, who has five World Cup wins, said the race had put him back on track for the world championships in Hamburg on August 30.
"Overall I had a really good race, I wasn't feeling completely on top at the start so I tried not to push myself too hard," said Kahlefeldt.
"I had a good start in the swim and my strategy going into the bike leg was to sit back and try to maintain a spot in the front half of the group."
"I looked for a couple of breaks but nothing really happened until the final lap where I managed to finish first and clear the transition ahead of the pack."
Going into the second half of the run leg, six of the sport's top runners, Whitfield, Belaubre, Kahlefeldt and Sven Riederer of Switzerland, Andreas Raelert of Germany and Will Clarke of Great Britain were running shoulder to shoulder.
With two kilometres to go the screw was tightened and Raelert and Clarke were the first to drop off.
In the final kilometre, Riederer also fell back leaving only the three eventual podium athletes together.
Whitfield's sprint put five metres between himself and the other two with Belaubre edging out Kahlefeldt for second.
