Jonathan Brownlee made a successful return to the ITU World Triathlon Series with gold in Yokohama. Jodie Stimpson earlier won her first ever World Series medal with bronze in the women’s race.
Having been told earlier this year that injury may force him to miss the season, Brownlee dominated the 10km run section to establish a convincing win over the Olympic silver medallist, Javier Gomez. He admitted to feeling emotional towards the closing stages of the win.
He commented: “At the start of the year I was told I wouldn’t be racing at all this season, so I got a bit emotional towards the end because this year I thought I wouldn’t be here at all. I thought the season was over two months ago.”
He added: “I’ve been worried about the heat here, I’ve been training in a heat chamber before I came out but when I heard the forecast I was so pleased. I sat in my hotel room waiting for it to rain!”
Great Britain’s team of eight triathletes seemed at home in the cool, wet conditions with many of them achieving their best results to date in the Series.
Adam Bowden made it three top ten finishes in three successive years with eighth place today. He commented: “I’m over the moon I’ve had three great results here, added to the great result in San Diego.”
He now sits in sixth place in the Series rankings, and added: “I’ll have a little bit of a break now, recover a bit and train through to Europeans.”
Scotland’s David McNamme didn’t have the perfect start to his race, but still improved by one place on his San Diego performance with ninth. He said: “I had a really bad swim so it ended up being quite lonely on the bike and the run. I ran well so yeah it was ok.”
Mark Buckingham finished 15th, his best ever result in the Series.
Jodie Stimpson achieved her first ever Series medal after having consistently challenged to do so all season. The 24 year old from Birmingham finished behind Gwen Jorgensen (USA) and former world champion, Emma Moffatt of Australia.
She said: “I couldn’t be happier to be honest. The main thing was the run started going into T2. I knew if I had a good transition that the people would have to sprint to catch up.
“We knew Gwen [Jorgensen] was closing and I tried to stay with her but I couldn’t, her legs are up to my arm pits! We did everything we could to hold her off but she showed her class there.
“Coming into the finish I knew I needed the inside line going into the final corner but she [Moffat] just had the edge on me in the sprint finish at the end.”
Katie Hewison rounded off the British results with her highest finish in a World Triathlon Series event in 14th.
The Series now moves on to Madrid, 1-2 June, where both Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee are expected to race. Non Stanford returns after her podium finish in San Diego and Jodie Stimpson will race again in pursuit of ultimately finishing in London’s top three at the free-to-view PruHealth World Triathlon Grand Final, 11-15 September.
Television highlights can be viewed on BBC2 tomorrow, Sunday 12 May at 2.40pm.
