Jonathan and Alistair Brownlee won gold and silver at the World Triathlon Stockholm, the penultimate round of the ITU World Triathlon Series. Younger brother, Jonathan, had the better uphill sprint at the finish to claim the gold and boost his Series points total ahead of the Grand Final next week.
Breaking away from the rest of the field after the swim, the brothers rode a lap of the wet, blustery bike course with Richard Varga of Slovakia. After he crashed they rode the rest of the course brilliantly, stretching the lead all the time.
On the run, Jonathan led the first lap before Alistair took over. However, Jonathan employed every tactic he could find to steal seconds on his brother and set up his first Series win of the season.
Jonathan Brownlee said: “I wanted to win. I always want to win. This season’s not gone as well as I could have hoped, but we built for the CWG and got very fit for that and we’ve carried on going.”
He added: “Stockholm’s a great course. That was a great race. It was perfect team tactics really. At least it shows we’re on good form now as we get on a plane tomorrow and fly to Canada for one more long journey.”
Alistair Brownlee enjoyed a repeat of the Commonwealth Games, where he and Jonathan broke away on their own. He said: “It was absolutely perfect. You can never predict a tactic like that. It’s only ever happened twice and that happens to be the last two races for us.”
He added: “It’s a real good course here. Once you’re on a course like this with two of you, you’re as fast as the pack anyway, if not faster on the corners and the wet roads.”
Commenting on the rivalry between himself and Jonathan, Alistair said: “We’re always very very competitive on everything we do. Jonny was making it hard for me to draft off him. There was a bit of tactics going on there, but yeah, it was just a good race.”
Germany’s Gregor Buchholz achieved his first ever Series podium by outsprinting Mario Mola and Richard Murray for bronze. Series leader, Javier Gomez looked uncomfortable on the run and did not finish. However, the Spaniard retains his grip on the world title with the World Triathlon Grand Final set to decide the 2014 champion next weekend in Edmonton.
Tom Bishop enjoyed his return following injury with a solid performance and 13th place finish. Aaron Harris was down on his brilliant Commonwealth Games performance, finishing 29th.
Elite men’s results:
1. Jonathan Brownlee, GBR, 57:31
2. Alistair Brownlee, GBR, 57:37
3. Gregor Buchholz, GER, 58:27
13. Tom Bishop, GBR, 59:08
29. Aaron Harris, GBR, 59:59
44. David McNamee, GBR, 1:00:42
