New perk! Get after it with local recommendations just for you. Discover nearby events, routes out your door, and hidden gems when you sign up for the Local Running Drop.
The two-time Olympic gold-medalist edged out a four-time Aquathlon world champ
Great Britain’s Alistair Brownlee has been on a tear since claiming his second Olympic gold medal on Aug. 16 in Rio de Janeiro. After taking care of media appearances and sponsor obligations at home in Great Britain, Brownlee traveled to Beijing and won last Sunday’s non-drafting Beijing International Triathlon against a tough field. He then quickly traveled just under 8,000 miles to Cozumel, Mexico to be a part of this week’s Grand Final action. While we expect him to be a part of the mix at Sunday’s elite men’s race, he unexpectedly won today’s ITU Aquathlon World Championships in his first-ever attempt at the format.
Brownlee completed the 2.5K run, 1K swim and 2.5K run in a time of 28:58, narrowly edging out four-time Aquathlon world champ Richard Varga of Slovakia by five seconds. American Tommy Zaferes rounded out the podium in 29:18.
“Defintely 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 kilometer after the swim.”
Brownlee also had a little fun with his new world championship victory on social media.
[twitter url=”https://twitter.com/AliBrownleetri/status/776072459195813893″ align=”center”]
On the women’s side, Mariya Shorets led a 1-2-3 Russian podium as Anastasia Abrosimova crossed over in second, followed by Valentina Zapatrina.
Read the complete recap and results at Triathlon.org