Pedersen, who sustained a fractured skull and critical bleeding around the brain after the training accident in September last year, was in a coma at the Odense University Hospital for 19 days before being transferred to Hammel Neurocentre to complete her rehabilitation.

And having only returned to action at the Challenge Fuerteventura in April, an event which she remarkably won, the Dane posted a time of 5 hours 43min 31sec in China to become a world champion for the first time.

"It is one year since my bad accident," said Pedersen.

"I have come back and I am speechless."

A strong cyclist, she clocked the fastest split of the day to move from the lead of the chase to the leader of the race.

With a split three minutes faster than anybody else, Pedersen ran towards the finish line clear of the competition.

Despite her healthy lead, Pedersen never let up, crossing the line with the fastest time of the day and the second fastest run split.

Bertrand Billard headed a French clean sweep in the men's event ©Getty Images



Although Finland's Kaisa Lehtonen was more than four minutes down out of the swim, she also took charge of the bike to move into second place.

She held onto her silver medal position with the fastest run of the day to win her first medal in her first appearance at the Championship event.

Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand, a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist in the Olympic distance at Melbourne 2006, who also trying her hand at the longer distance for the first time, was well positioned for gold or silver but a crash caused her to fall behind.

However, she managed to hang tough in the race and rounded out the top three.

Meanwhile in the men's event, France swept the podium with Bertrand Billard retaining his title as compatriots Sylvain Sudrie and Cyril Viennot joined him on the podium.

The three-lap bike changed the race and saw the eventual front three all but tie up their medals as the only athletes to split the discipline under three hours.

Billard was brilliant on the bike, blowing past the nine men that were ahead of him on the swim, and he showed no signs of slowing down on the four-lap run.

With the fifth-fastest run split of the day, Billard retained his crown in a time of 5:09.09.