Sunday, May 31, 2009

Brownlee clinches maiden victory

Alistair Brownlee wins in Madrid on Sunday
Brownlee ran the legs off the field to win in style in Madrid

Britain's Alistair Brownlee launched his International Triathlon Union World Championship Series campaign in style with victory in Madrid on Sunday.

Brownlee took the gold in 1hr 51min 27sec with Courtney Atkinson (1:52.14) second and Javier Gomez third.

Brownlee, 21, was well placed after the swim and cycle and then blew the field away in the run to claim his first ITU series win.

"It was the perfect race for me really," said Brownlee.

"Everything seemed to go right from the start, I couldn't believe it. I had a fantastic swim next to Ivan Vasiliev and he just took me from there," added Brownlee, who won the junior championships in 2006 and world under-23 title in 2008.

"The first two bike laps were really hard as we settled into a good group and someone said we had a 45-second lead and I thought 'where did that come from?' Then, when it was 1:30, I couldn't believe it.

"I went off on the run and I thought, 'right, I'm going to make this hard after the tough bike' and before I knew it I had 30 seconds. I thought I was going to blow up on that last lap, but it was great to hold on."

Gomez, who returned to action following an ankle injury suffered after the 2008 Olympic Games, just missed out on silver in the second ITU series race of the season.

He lost out when Atkinson kicked late to take second and claim his ninth podium finish in his last 10 races.

Will Clarke was Britain's next finisher in 14th, just ahead of Olly Freeman in 17th. Stuart Hayes was 32nd while Tim Don pulled out after the bike.

The women's race was won by New Zealand's Andrea Hewitt in a sprint finish with Lisa Norden from Sweden. Jess Harrison from France was third.

The top British finisher was 2008 ITU World Champion, Helen Jenkins, down in 16th, while rising star Hollie Avil was forced to pull out after a puncture during the bike section of the race.

ะพ 8:50 AM

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