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Sarah-Anne Brault celebrates her victory in the ITU Pan-American Championships in La Paz, Argentina, on Jan. 15. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)

Sarah-Anne Brault has long planned on becoming a world-class triathlete. She just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

The 22-year-old graduate of Collège Louis-Riel won the ITU Pan-American Championships in La Paz, Argentina, on Jan. 15, her first international victory.

Brault is taking a semester away from West Virginia University, where she’s in the fourth year of a track scholarship, to devote her full attention to the triathlon. Until now, the sport has merely been a summertime diversion for the 10-km specialist.

"I’ve always really enjoyed racing (triathlons) in the summer, but it hasn’t been my focus," said Brault in a telephone interview last week from Chile, where she was preparing for a Jan. 22 race in which she finished third.

The decision to make the triathlon her focus — and to take an outside shot at qualifying for the Canadian Olympic team — was born after Brault surprised the establishment by winning the Canadian championship last August.

"That in itself was a surprise, and kind of set the tone for this year," she said.

Although running is her strongest discipline, Brault’s first sporting passion was swimming. She grew up competing for the Manitoba Marlins club, but in high school discovered that she was a better runner than a swimmer.

"It’s more fun to win races than to finish in the middle of the pack," she said.

Running also led to a scholarship offer from the Mountaineers, and meant putting the triathlon — something she had begun to dabble in for her last couple years of high school — on the backburner. Brault called it the hardest decision of her life to put triathlon aside while going to school.

"The way I did it, I have to be more patient," she said. "But I think I’ll be a better athlete in the end."

A distance runner can’t set aside much time or energy for swimming or cycling when competing at the NCAA level, but Brault did compete in triathlons during the summer.

While her swimming can still get much stronger, Brault says her running has drastically improved thanks to her track training.

In Argentina, she was in fourth place after the 1,500-metre swim, and joined up with a lead group of about 10 athletes for the 40-kilometre bike ride. She managed to pull away about halfway through the 10-kilometre run, and won the race by more than a minute.

Brault knows qualifying for the London Olympics is a long shot, as she wasn’t on the circuit last season when many valuable points were available. But she’s eager to see how she performs in races in Barbados on Feb. 1 and Florida on March 3 against strong international fields.

"I still have another level to get to," she said. "I’m looking more at 2016. As long as I don’t get hurt and keep enjoying the sport, I’m looking at that as my big focus. If 2012 happens, it would be a great experience.

"It’s been a great adventure, but I’m not even close to being done."

avi.saper@canstarnews.com