Olympic distance races featuring a 1.5 kilometres swim, 40km bike and 10km run began at Half Moon Bay on the circuit's return to Weihai for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seregni enjoyed a strong swim in the women's race to take a 23 seconds lead with her time of 19min 20sec, but allowed the lead group to join her for the challenging bike course instead of making a solo move.

The group of 18 remained intact going into the run, led by Italy's Ilaria Zane, Spain's Anna Godoy and Japan's Niina Kishimoto.

Seregni quickly hit the front and raced to an impressive victory in 1 hour 58min 42sec, which moved her up six places in the World Triathlon rankings to 28th and up 10 places in the Paris 2024 Olympics qualification rankings to 31st.

There are 26 quota places available for National Olympic Committees through the Olympic qualification rankings.

After a difficult year with injuries, Austria's Lisa Perterer earned her first World Triathlon Cup podium finish for more than two years with a silver in 1:58:59.

Zane earned the bronze in 1:59:04, staving off Godoy in a sprint battle by four seconds.

Grajales dominated the men's race, making up a gap of around 20 seconds from the swim to form part of the lead group of 19 on the bike.

A big effort at the front of the group helped Grajales to lead through transition, but it was Japan’s Aoba Yasumatsu who made the initial move on the run.

Grajales emerged strongest and ultimately ran unchallenged to victory in 1:46:35.

He climbed 41 places to 56th in the World Triathlon rankings and 24 in the Olympic qualifying rankings to 76^th.

Makoto Odakura of Japan finished a career-best second in 1:46:50, with Germany's Lasse Nygaard Priester finishing third seven seconds further back.

Valencia is due to host the next World Triathlon Cup event on September 2.