Great Britian’s Jonathan Brownlee was determined to not take another ITU World Triathlon Auckland silver medal on Sunday as he produced a breakout run to earn him his first WTS title of the season.
Following a less than perfect start to his 2015 season, Brownlee turned in a master-class performance over the tough, hilly course made even more difficult in the wet conditions to beat out the reigning WTS Auckland champion Javier Gomez Noya (ESP), who took the second-podium spot. For Frenchman Pierre Le Corre (FRA) it was a career best result of bronze.
In the lead pack the entire race, Brownlee proved his gold-medal worth once foot hit the pavement and he secured a healthy gap that brought him into the finish-line first. Adding a 10-second lead after each of the lap on the 10-kilometre run, he took home the top podium position with a time of 1:55:26.
“It was great to win today, first World Series event that I have won in a while. In Abu Dhabi I made a lot of mistakes and I have been beating myself up about it over the last three weeks and training hard because I did not want to do it again,” said Brownlee. “I felt good, I really enjoyed it today and I am pleased to win.”
It was no surprise to see the familiar sight of Richard Varga (SVK) at the front of the swim pack and first out of the water, after which a lead group formed crossing through the first transition that remained a tight pack until the end of the bike.
With the leaders becoming interchangeable, a 15-man lead group held a united front and stayed uninterrupted for all eight laps of the bike, including Brownlee, Thomas Bishop (GBR), Varga, Gomez, Henri Schoeman (RSA) and Pierre Le Corre (FRA). The chase group, which housed New Zealand’s own Ryan Sissons (NZL) and the WTS Abu Dhabi gold medallist Mario Mola (ESP) could not close the gap and stayed behind by over 30 seconds.
Spain’s Gomez returned to form after his 6th-place finish in Abu Dhabi and earned himself a podium position. Despite not being able to match Brownlee’s furious pace, in the final lap he broke away from Le Corre to take silver. This is the first time in the four outstanding appearances in Auckland that Gomez has not placed first.
“Jonathan was just really strong today. I have been through a pretty tough time lately, I got sick right before Abu Dhabi and between that race and today I was taking a strain too so I am really happy with second place. Obviously I would have loved to win but I performed the best I could,” said Gomez.
