Britain’s Brownlee takes World Crown in Australia

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Britain’s Alistair Brownlee won the Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championship Series Grand Final on Australia’s Gold Coast this morning in a time of 1:44.51 to become 2009 World Champion.

The 21 year-old’s Grand Final victory was one of five wins for the talented Englishman on the Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championships Series this season.  His previous successes came in Madrid, Washington, Kitzbuehel and last month in Hyde Park, London, where Brownlee underlined his 2012 medal potential on the intended Olympic venue.

Today’s other GB contenders Will Clarke and Tim Don finished 11th and 16th respectively.

Brownlee trains in his home area of Leeds, Yorkshire, with his younger brother Jonathan, 19, who has the opportunity tomorrow of completing a family world championships “double� if he can take the junior men’s title.  A second Brownlee win would mean a “treble� for Great Britain after Hollie Avil yesterday won the World U23 women’s title ahead of compatriot Jodie Stimpson in silver.

In this morning’s race the elder Brownlee placed himself well coming out of the swim and stayed in the main, chasing pack on the bike ride.  He and his main rival and defending world champion Javier Gomez, plus Olympic champion Jan Frodeno, caught the leading cyclists within two laps of the run.  Brownlee and Gomez dropped Frodeno, the eventual bronze medallist, to go into the lead before Brownlee surged ahead of Gomez on the last lap to take the title.

After his win Brownlee today said: “It’s absolutely amazing,� he said of being Great Britain’s newest world champion.

“I couldn’t have asked for anything more and even up to today I’ve had some good races but I had no idea how it was going to go and, yeah, I really had to give it one hundred percent today and I’m absolutely delighted with myself.�

He said the win, the eighth Great Britain victory in the elite men’s event since the first world championships in 1989, should provide a huge boost for the sport in the UK.

“It’s amazing. It’s a brilliant time for us and just shows how well this sport is going.�
Speaking about how he didn’t actually have to win today to secure the world title, the natural athlete shone through.

“Well, every athlete in every race wants to win and I really wanted to win the world title and I wasn’t going to do anything to make sure that didn’t happen, but when I saw the chance to win then I knew I wasn’t going to lay down.

“I was going to give it everything and I was delighted with how the race went.�

Brownlee said he was confident heading into the run after giving away the minute and a half deficit to the leaders.

“Well I was pretty confident those guys [leaders Pais and Sapunov] weren’t such good runners and I also knew that if Javier [Gomez] didn’t win overall, I could afford to come tenth and still win the championship.

“It was his prerogative to chase me down and so I just let them go and see what he wanted to do.�

Brownlee said Gomez produced some testing surges over the final two kilometres.

“I just had to do everything I could to hold on.

“I just told myself to get to the top of the hill and I just got to the top of the hill and hung on and on the last lap I just gave it everything I had – and it was downhill,� he said.

And where did he know he’d won it?

“The last 50 metres,� he laughed.

Listen to Alistair's post race interview 

View pictures from the race

Whilst Frodeno held on today for bronze in today’s Gold Coast event, his compatriot Mark Petzold became world bronze medallist on points after some good results earlier in the year and a fourth place today.

Helen Jenkins, the reigning world champion, will feature tomorrow in the elite women’s race. She is currently ranked no.6 in the world after taking bronze in London.  She could be coming into form at just the right time but Australia’s Emma Moffatt remains firm favourite to take the title with New Zealand’s Andrea Hewitt and Sweden’s Lisa Norden also top contenders.
 
RESULTS
 
2009 Gold Coast Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Series Grand Final (NB – Gold Coast event results. World Champs rankings below)
1.5km swim, 40km cycle, 10km run
Elite Men's Unofficial Results
Gold. Alistair Brownlee, Great Britain. 1:44:51
Silver. Javier Gomez, Spain. 1:44:57 +0:06
Bronze. Jan Frodeno, Germany. 1:45:21 +0:30
4. Maik Petzold, Germany. 1:45:25 +0:34
5. Courtney Atkinson, Australia. 1:45:27 +0:36
6. Dmitry Polyansky, Russia. 1:45:29 +0:38
7. Steffen Justus, Germany. 1:45:30 +0:39
8. Simon Whitfield, Canada. 1:45:31 +0:40
9. Laurent Vidal, France. 1:45:37 +0:46
10. Alexander Brukhankov, Russia. 1:45:38 +0:47

2009 Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Series
Gold. Alistair Brownlee, Great Britain. 4400pts / 2009 World Champion
Silver. Javier Gomez, Spain. 3959pts
Bronze. Maik Petzold, Germany. 3442pts
4. Jan Frodeno, Germany. 3162pts
5. Steffen Justus, Germany. 3139pts
6. Laurent Vidal, France. 3048pts
7. Courtney Atkinson, Australia. 2980pts
8. Kris Gemmell, New Zealand. 2903pts
9. Dmitry Polyansky, Russia. 2858pts
10. Jarrod Shoemaker, USA. 2783pts
 
For full results please www.triathlon.org