Jonathan Brownlee showed he is determined to end his campaign fighting as he outsprinted older brother Alistair to take his first ITU World Triathlon Series win of the season in Stockholm.
Much of the Brownlee brothers’ focus this season was on peaking for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow – a plan that bore fruit as Alistair led a one-two in the men’s race before the pair combined to take gold in the team relay.
However with two races remaining of the World Triathlon, there was still business to attend to in Sweden on Saturday.
Spain’s Javier Gomez had been leading the standings with Jonathan the nearest challenger in second.
But with Gomez failing to finish the course, Jonathan took full advantage, building up a 50-second lead into the run section alongside his brother.
And it was the younger sibling who got the egde on the final uphill sprint to claim gold in 57:31 minutes.
It leaves him second in the overall standings, 282 points behind Gomez, with 1,200 points for next week’s Grand Final winner in Edmonton.
“I wanted to win. I always want to win,” said the Olympic bronze medallist. “This season’s not gone as well as I could have hoped, but we built for the Commonwealth Games and got very fit for that and we’ve carried on going.
“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 and fly to Canada for one more long journey.”
Meanwhile in the women’s race, Commonwealth champion Jodie Stimpson was unable to add to her medal haul as she finished back in 16th place with teammate Lucy Hall the highest-placed Brit in ninth.
Victory went to American Sarah Groff with the New Zealand pair of Andrea Hewitt and Nicky Samuels making up the podium.
© Sportsbeat 2014