Less than a week after winning Beijing International Triathlon Olympic Champion Alistair Brownlee has won the Aquathlon World Championships in Cozumel, Mexico with Richard Varga taking second and Tommy Zaferes third.
The flat and fast course comprises of a 2.5km opening run, 1km swim and then a second 2.5km run. The run course took place around the FONATUR Marina, with the one-lap swim in the crystal clear waters of the Marina Sea.
Swift on their feet, Brownlee and Crisanto Grajales from Mexico ditched the competition on the first run lap, getting to the crystal clear waters of Cozumel first. However despite having a 15-second deficit, Varga, who has led out of the water at every World Triathlon Series race this year, and Zaferes caught and passed both Brownlee and Grajales.
Brownlee managed to stay with them to head out for the second run together and it wasn't long before he took the lead and stayed there, with Varga crossing the finish line next, while Zaferes won bronze.
“Definitely my first ever run, swim, run,” Brownlee said. “I really enjoyed it, it was hard, really hard. It’s so hot, the running was tough. The other guys went off really hard and I thought ‘I better go with them’. It was weird, it’s not like I was tired, but I felt like I was in oxygen depth the first kilometre after the swim.”
In the men’s U23 race GB's Richard Allen took silver behind Turkey’s Jonas Schomburg ahead of Leong Tim Law (HKG) who took bronze.