Brownlee stuns Madrid WCS field
Alistair Brownlee, the 21-year-old student from Leeds, Great Britain, devastated the field with a sizzling, race-best 30:30 10km run to take the second round of the 2009 ITU World Championship Series in Madrid Spain by 47 seconds over runner-up Courtney Atkinson of Australia. Javier Gomez of Spain, the 2008 ITU World Champion still recovering from an ankle injury that hampered him at the 2008 Olympics, rounded out the podium, five seconds back of Atkinson.
Brownlee, the 2006 ITU Junior World Champion and 2008 ITU Under 23 World Champion who led the 2008 Olympic triathlon before fading to 12th, hung tough with an 11-man bike breakaway that put 1:42 on the rest of the field led by Olympic champion Jan Frodeno, ITU World Championship Series Round 1 runner-up Brad Kahlefeldt of Australia, and Jarrod Shoemaker of the United States. After parking his bike, Brownlee took off on the run like a rocket-propelled grenade. Showing recent running form that produced a 29:30 10km road race a month ago, Brownlee left Gomez, an 11-time ITU World Cup winner and Atkinson, a 7-time ITU World Cup winner who won both the Mooloolaba and Ishigaki World Cup races earlier this year, in his dust.
“It was a dream race,” said Brownlee, who had not previously won an ITU World Cup race.
Kahlefeldt was the best of the chase pack, running a second-best on the day 31:04 10km to out lean fellow chaser Frodeno, bike front packer James Seear of Australia, and the USA’s Shoemaker for 9th.
A seventh place finish in Madrid, combined with his bronze medal in Tongyeong moves Dmitry Polyansky of Russia ahead of New Zealand’s Bevan Docherty to lead the men’s standings World Championship Series standings with 1186 points, 17 points ahead of Australia’s Brad Kahlefeldt (2nd and 9th) with fellow Aussie Atkinson (10th and 2nd)moving into third.
2009 ITU World Championship Series 2
Madrid, Spain
May 31, 2009
S 1.5k/ B 40k/ R 10k
Results
Men
1. Alistair Brownlee (GBR) 1:51:27
2. Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 1:52:14
3. Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:52:19
4. Maik Petzold (GER) 1:52:32
5. Ivan Vasiliev (RUS) 1:52:39
6. Alexander Brukhankov (RUS) 1:52:45
7. Dimitry Polyansky (RUS) 1:53:08
8. Christian Prochnow (GER) 1:53:17
9. Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) 1:53:18
10. Jan Frodeno (GER) 1:53:19
12. Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 1:53:20
DNFs included: Mark Fretta (USA)
