Javier Gomez wins the 2013 ITU Grand Final and his third ITU World Championship
Gomez outsprinted Jonny Brownlee for his third ITU World Championship (Photo: Delly Carr/ITU)
With clear and dry conditions for the men’s ITU Grand Final, the 1.5km swim got underway with Richard Varga (SLO) breaking fresh water in the Serpentine shadowed by Aurelien Raphael (FRA) and the Brownlee brothers, who were racing cheek to cheek barely an inch apart.
Javier Gomez (ESP) appeared to slip back through the pack a little and as Varga made his way to the Australian exit that marks the halfway mark, the Spaniard was 16 seconds off the Slovakian’s pace while the Brownlees were in fourth and fifth places near the head of the race.
Varga continued to push the pace of the swim, splitting the pack in half, and leapt from the Serpentine in 17:04, Aaron Royle (AUS) on his heels with Jonny Brownlee and Alistair Brownlee next from the water. Gomez was back in 13th place, 19 seconds down, but still comfortably made the first bike group of 13 after a drama-free transition.
The Brownlees and Gomez all took big turns at the front of their 13-man bike group, lifting the speed to pull away from the six chasers trying to close the gap, Alistair Brownlee barking orders at the rest of the group to keep the pace high.
At the end of lap two of seven, the leading pack were holding an advantage of 41 seconds over the quickly-swelling chasing group headed by the fast-running Richard Murray (RSA) – who then made a short-lived breakaway during lap three, clearly frustrated at the lack of impetuous shown by his fellow racers.
With lap four completed, the chase group had made up a little time to narrow their deficit to 33 seconds as the sky darkened and rain started to fall. The Brownlees then added to the pace, daring the others to up their game or get left behind, the gap to the pursuers remaining constant.
During lap six, Alistair Brownlee again put in a surge of effort, causing Gomez and Jonny Brownlee to sprint up to his wheel and drag the others with them. Meanwhile the chasers managed to chip another few seconds off their deficit, bringing it down to 26 seconds as the bell rang for the final lap.
Not content to sit in the front of the group anymore, Alistair Brownlee attempted a repeat of his ITU Stockholm breakaway, jumping away from the rest of the pack to earn a lead of around 50m. while Gomez rallied to chase the series leader down.
Brownlee was soon caught and back in the front group and as the older Brownlee dismounted, a wince of pain was telling of his continued struggle with an ongoing calf and ankle injury.
Jonny Brownlee was immediately dominant at the front of the run with Gomez on his shoulder and Royle a stride behind while Alistair Brownlee ran on in around tenth place making a pointing gesture to his temple to his brother, apparently telling him to be mindful of his race.
Before long Royle had been dropped by the two leaders who were once again going head to head along the tracks of Hyde Park. Behind them, Alistair Brownlee seemed to be finding a second wind, running back through the field and up into fifth place.
Gomez and Brownlee then began to trade the lead, the Spaniard perhaps looking a little stronger, but the pair still pulling ahead of the rest of the field. At the end of the first 3.3km lap they held a lead of 14 seconds over Dmitry Polyanskiy (RUS) and Royle, Alistair Brownlee 22 seconds behind.
It wasn’t long before Alistair Brownlee had begun to slip back again, still running through the pain and being swamped by the rest of the field as each step became more like a hobble.
Mario Mola (ESP) meanwhile was running up the order, pressing on in fifth place by 5km in and then third soon after, Polyanskiy trying to hold on.
At the front of the race, Gomez put on a surge of speed to test Jonny Brownlee, who appeared equal to the acceleration, the two still together going into the final lap.
The pair continued to trade turns of pace as they ran within 2km of the finish, neither giving an inch, each waiting for the other to break.
With less than 1km to go, Gomez put on his most savage surge yet, covered quickly be Gomez as they neared the end of the course. Next it was Jonny Brownlee’s turn to sprint, his older brother stopping on opposite side of the road to shout encouragement as Gomez lost a metre of road.
Coming onto the blue carpet, Gomez was back on Brownlee’s heel, then the Spaniard was on his shoulder and then in front as Jonny Brownlee’s sprint cracked. Gomez crossed the line to claim his third ITU World Championship in 1:48:16, Jonny Brownlee taking second in 1:48:17. Mola took third in 1:49:10 with Polyanskiy fourth in 1:49:21 and Vincent Luis (FRA) rounding out the top five.
Alistair Brownlee hobbled across the line in 52nd place 6:47 down.
The results of the Grand Final race mean Gomez takes the world title, Jonny Brownlee the silver over the series and Mola bronze.
Gomez said: “It feels amazing to be world champion, I can’t really believe it. It probably wasn’t my day for running, I felt quite tired, so I was just working hard on the sprint, on the last kick. It’s amazing to be champion, I’m so happy.”
Jonathan Brownlee said: “I’m gutted to be honest. I wanted to win, especially here in London after last year. I was pleased with bronze last year but I wanted to win here.
“I was so close, it’s hard. You ask yourself what you could have done differently. Second in the world isn’t too bad but I wanted to win.”
Commenting on what Alistair had said to him on the course he added: “He told me to use my head, because it’s windy don’t run on the front too much.”
Commenting on his close rivals, the Brownlees, Javier Gomez commented: “They are probably the best triathletes I have ever seen and I know how hard it is to beat them at home. Jonathan probably started sprinting a little too early and I had a little bit left so it was perfect.”
Alistair Brownlee still managed to take fourth place overall in the ITU World Triathlon Series.
He said: “It was hit and miss whether I was going to be all right. I wanted to give myself at least a chance to race. I knew I didn’t want to be sitting there today watching the race thinking maybe I would have been alright, I should have done it – I had to start.”
British Triathlon Performance Director, Brendan Purcell summed up Britain’s performances at the PruHealth World Triathlon Grand Final London: “As a programme we have depth at junior level and some of those athletes are already stepping up at senior level.
“The seniors are winning medals and we’re leading the world at paratriathlon. This means we’re doing things right, but there is still more we can do, and that challenge is exciting.”