Alistair at the double

ALISTAIR Brownlee reigned supreme in Leeds for the second year in a row by once again defeating younger brother Jonny in the latest World Triathlon Series event. The elder Brownlee skipped the first three races of the season, opting to turn his attention to Ironman events since retaining his Olympic title last year, but proved he is still the man to beat in this format in his home city. Roared on by up to 100,000 lining the streets, the 29-year-old completed the 1.5km swim in Roundhay Park and the 38.6km bike ride and 10km run around the city centre in 1hr 46mins 51secs. It was a familiar second place for Olympic silver medallist Jonny, who at least made amends for a disappointing result in Yokohama last month when he crashed his bike before coming home 42nd, while Spain’s Fernando Alarza finished third. The Brownlees were racing together for the first time since Alistair memorably carried stricken Jonny over the line in last year’s World Series finale in Cozumel in Mexico.

“It was really special,” Alistair said. “The last few hundred metres leading up to Millennium Square was amazing. I will remember this experience for the rest of my career.”

Jonny said: “It was a hard way to do that race, to be the two of us from the end of the swim. If I want to beat Alistair, that is not the way to do it.

“I basically turned it into a long-distance hard man’s race and he is a bit harder than me.”

The women’s race was won by reigning world champion Flora Duffy of Bermuda ahead of America’s Taylor Spivey and Italy’s Alice Betto, while British pair Jessica Learmonth and an off-colour Non Stanford finished sixth and 11th respectively.