Monday, July 05, 2010

Alistair Brownlee wins European title in Athlone

(Courtesy of the BBC)

British triathlete Alistair Brownlee followed up his victory in Spain last month with a win at the Athlone ETU European Championships on Sunday.

The 22-year-old from Leeds finished 40 seconds ahead of defending champion Javier Gomez of Spain.

Brownlee has clearly fully recovered from the stress fracture of the leg which he suffered earlier in the year.

Gomez and Slovakian Richard Varga took the lead in Ireland but Brownlee reeled them both in.

By the time the breakaway group entered the first transition they were 20 seconds ahead of the main pack, which included Russia's Dmitry Polyansky.

High winds made for difficult cycling conditions and the organisers agreed to shorten the course by two kilometres.

Brownlee charged to the front at the start of the 10K run and while Gomez kept close for a few kilometres, he gradually slipped back.

As Brownlee increased his lead his younger brother, Jonathan, faded badly as Frenchman David Hauss came on strong with a late run, ending in third place.

Afterwards Brownlee said: "When I was injured earlier this year, this was what I was aiming for. That is the biggest number of high fives I have ever done coming into the finishing straight."

1 comment:

Bryan said...

That's a man baby!!! (austin powers voice)