Gorman led home the first women’s semi-final, as she completed the 750 metre swim, 20 kilometre bike course and 5km run in a time of 1hr and 6sec.

She held off the challenge of France’s Emilie Morier, who was just two seconds off the pace as the runner-up.

The top three was rounded off last year’s overall winner Renee Tomlin, with the American ensuring her qualification to tomorrow’s final by clocking 1:00:12.

Dolan would achieve the fastest women’s time of the day, as she won the second semi-final in 59:48.

Local athlete Zsófia Kovács delighted the Hungarian crowd by ending second in 59:55, while Giorgia Priarone of Italy was third in 1:00:10.

The top 14 athletes in each of the women’s semi-finals progressed to tomorrow’s race, while the fastest two finishers outside those positions also advanced.

The first nine in both men’s semi-finals were assured of guaranteed places in the final, with the three best times locking down spots on the start line as well.

Hungary’s Bence Bicsak won the first semi-final in a time of 53:59.

The Russian pair of Andrey Bryukhankov and Dmitry Polyanskiy rounded off the top three in 54:17 and 54:19.

The latter will hope to repeat his triumph in last year’s event when he competes in tomorrow’s final.

Matthew Sharpe won the second race in 53:04, with the Canadian followed across the line by Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca and Brazil’s Manoel Messias, who ended 2sec and 3sec behind respectively.

The final semi-final was won by Russia’s Ilya Prasolov in 53:54.

Jonas Schomburg, competing under the ITU flag, and Hungary’s Akos Vanek ended 4sec and 25sec behind.