Jonathan Brownlee recorded another dominant ITU World Triathlon Series victory with a win on the Gold Coast, Australia. Backing up his win just two weeks ago in Auckland, Brownlee was a convincing winner and extends his lead in the Series rankings.
Brownlee established a lead alongside Richard Varga (SVK) and the Polyanskiy brothers (RUS) during the swim. The quartet further cemented their lead during the 40km bike section despite the younger Polyanski, Igor, crashing out and forcing Brownlee to skilfully avoid hitting the barriers himself.
By the time the group reached the start of the run they’d maintained a 21 second gap over the rest of the field, including ITU World Champion, Javier Gomez.
Brownlee described the crash and the work done during the 40km bike section: “Igor crashed in front of me. I basically had to jump over the back wheel and I thought I was down, and I thought everything was against us.
“We needed some more fire power, I needed Alistair, I was praying, ‘come on Alistair, come back from injury, come out of nowhere, I need you here.’ But Richard Varga was incredible. He gave everything, he kept that going and if it wasn’t for him it would have been all over.”
Commenting on the win, he added: “I think it’s [down to] confidence. After the start of the season I had an awful race, I said I didn’t want to make mistakes again. Today it started really well. I saw the four of us and thought lets be aggressive.
“On the run I knew they would take time out of me on the first lap, then I thought ‘be steady, and if I run 30:30 it’s going to take a great run for them to catch me’, and fortunately they didn’t.”
Gwen Jorgensen achieved her eighth Series victory in a row during the women’s race, and led a USA podium sweep along with Sarah True and Katie Zaferes. Her margin of victory was 1 minute and 18 seconds. Britain’s Lucy Hall was 25th and Jess Learmonth finished her first Word Series event after leading out the swim.
British Triathlon Performance Director, Brendan Purcell, said: “That was indicative of the good work Jonny’s done over the winter, and it’s validation of what Alistair’s done as well, we just need to need to get him ready to race now.”
He added: “Jess finished her first WTS race, that’s good for the future, and good for the squad. Lucy is already talking to Ben [Bright] about where the improvements can come, and that’s what you want from an athlete. Obviously you want athletes on the podium, but you also want athletes who want to learn.”
The next race takes place in Cape Town, 25-26 April. Jonathan Brownlee will not be racing, but Olympic Champion, Alistair, is expected to start. Cape Town hosts the fourth round of the ITU World Triathlon Series. There are nine rounds before the ITU world champions will be decided at the World Triathlon Grand Final in Chicago.
Highlights and exclusive interviews are available on BBC2 tomorrow, Sunday 12 April at 1.20pm.
Results ITU World Triathlon Gold Coast, 1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run:
Men
1. Jonathan Brownlee, GBR, 1:46:53
2. Mario Mola,ESP, 1:47:11
3. Javier Gomez Noya, ESP, 1:47:21
43. Phillip Graves, GBR, 1:52:48
Women
1. Gwen Jorgensen, USA, 1:56:59
2. Sarah True, USA, 1:58:17
3. Katie Zaferes, USA, 1:58:35
25. Lucy Hall, GBR, 2:01:39
30. Jessica Learmonth, GBR, 2:02:31
