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Jonny Brownlee second in South Africa

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Jonathan Brownlee had to settle for second at the ITU World Triathlon Cape Town as Javier Gomez (ESP) put in a lethal turn of speed on the third of four run laps to distance himself from Brownlee. Aaron Harris finished 7th, his best ever ITU World Triathlon Series finish.

Unlike the women’s race yesterday, the men’s race had a full-length swim and the race took place over the standard distance of 1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run. It was a familiar start with Slovakia’s Richard Varga leading out the swim and shepherding a small group into the first transition.

A lead group of fourteen athletes, including Brownlee and Gomez, got away and led the bike section. In a re-run of the previous round in Auckland, these two broke away from the rest on the run and ran shoulder-to-shoulder until Gomez surged away after around 6km.

The turn of pace from Gomez was too much for Brownlee, who again finished second to the ITU World Champion.

Brownlee commented that the run from Gomez was even more impressive than the previous round.

He added: “I always knew if he got a decent gap it was be hard to close it. I was trying to focus on Javier and close that gap but it was getting bigger.”

Aaron Harris had the run of his life to come through from the second group to finish seventh, his best ever finish in the Series. His run time of 30:18 was only bettered by Mario Mola (ESP) and Richard Murray (RSA). Nineteen-year-old Gordon Benson finished 26th in his Series debut.

Gomez now stretches his lead at the top of the world rankings with Brownlee second.  Aaron Harris sits in 15th place having only competed in one round of the Series so far. 

British Triathlon Performance Director, Brendan Purcell said: “Jonny is in a strong place, and there are things he’s working on that will come over the next few months, but Gomez seems significantly on form at the moment. The thing for me is that what ever is thrown at him, he’ll get on the podium.”

He added: “I think it’s really exciting where we are at the moment. We’ve got three girls in the top ten yesterday and we could have had four. The culture of working together to get your best individual result is working.”

The next round takes place in Yokohama, Japan, 17-18 May and is followed by the home event in Hyde Park on 31 May. Olympic Champion Alistair Brownlee and ITU World Champion, Non Stanford, are yet to race this season but it is hoped that they will recover from injuries to feature in one or both of the next two rounds.

Results, Elite Men: 1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run

1. Javier Gomez, ESP, 1:44.52
2. Jonathan Brownlee, GBR, 1:45.11
3. Polyanskiy, RUS, 1:45.35
7. Aaron Harris, GBR, 1:46.06
26. Gordon Benson, GBR, 1:47.51
34. Matt Sharp, GBR, 1:48.53
45. Mark Buckingham, GBR, 1:51.00

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