Jonny Brownlee wins world sprint champs

Twenty-year-old Brit Jonathan Brownlee took home top honours at the first-ever ITU Sprint Triathlon World Championship, earning the first world title of his young career. It makes four ITU World Championships in the Brownlee household, as older brother Alistair has earned world titles in the Junior, U23 and Elite categories. The younger Brownlee topped veteran teammate Tim Don in Lausanne, finishing 12 seconds ahead.

“I guess I’m lucky because I raced as a Junior last year, and Juniors race the sprint distance,” Brownlee said. “I think I have a bit more experience at this kind of race than a lot of these guys and that helped today.”

Don, who has previously won world championships in Lausanne in the Junior and Elite categories, completed the one-two British punch, finishing five seconds ahead of Frenchman David Hauss.

“There’s something about Lausanne that makes it a special place for me,” Don said. When I won the Junior world title here in 1999, it really set up my career and made me believe in myself. This is one of my favourite places to race.”

Seventy-three men dove into the 21-degree water of Lake Geneva to kick things off, and after just over nine minutes in the Lake, Canada’s Andrew McCartney led the way out of the swim. He was joined by a group of five men, including Brownlee.

“That was one of the hardest swims I’ve ever done,” Brownlee said. “Everyone was pushing really hard from the start.”

Onto the hilly and technical four-lap bike course, Brownlee led a break of five men on the first lap. As the group of five headed onto lap two, they had a 15-second advantage on the big chase group, led by Greg Bennett (ITU) and Cameron Dye (USA). The chase pack was able to catch the leaders on the second lap, thanks in large part to the strong riding of Dye and Bennett.

After a hard 20K of riding, a group of over 50 men rolled into the second transition together, leaving the race to the fastest 5K run. It was clear early on that the run would come down to Brownlee and Don, as the pair pulled away on the first of two run laps, with Hauss and Aussie Brad Kahlefeldt giving chase.

Brownlee pulled away from his countryman as he started the final 2.5K lap, and cruised to the win in 52:58, with Don hitting the finish line 12 seconds later. Hauss put the exclamation point on the best year of his career, finishing third in 53:16.

Rounding out the top five was Kahlefeldt (4th) and Aussie teammate Dan Wilson (5th).

ITU Sprint Triathlon World Championship

Lausanne, Switzerland – 21 August 2010

750-metre swim, 20K bike, 5K run

Elite Men Results

1. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) 52:58

2. Tim Don (GBR) 53:11 +12

3. David Hauss (FRA) 53:16 +17

4. Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) 53:20 +22

5. Dan Wilson (AUS) 53:26 +28

6. Gregor Buchholz (GER) 53:27 +29

7. Bryan Keane (IRL) 53:33 +35

8. Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 53:38 +39

9. Sven Riederer (SUI) 53:42 +43

10. Franz Loeschke (GER) 53:44 +45

Matt Baird Editor of Cycling Plus magazine

About

Matt is a regular contributor to 220 Triathlon, having joined the magazine in 2008. He’s raced everything from super-sprint to Ironman, duathlons and off-road triathlons, and can regularly be seen on the roads and trails around Bristol. Matt is the author of Triathlon! from Aurum Press and is now the editor of Cycling Plus magazine.