To beat Javier Gomez once in an ITU race by dominating on the run could be seen as the impetuousness of youth. To do it again in a French Grand Prix and then repeat the trick for a third time at today's ITU Dextro Energy World Championship Series race in Washington DC pretty much nails Al Brownlee's colours to the mast. He is, as we have said before, a complete triathlete and today's performance confirms that, even as young as he is, he is the man to beat this season and hopefully for many more to come.

While Potts and Kemper set about creating a break on the swim they took with them Gomez, Petzold and a soon-to-be goggleless Brownlee. With the Potomac in such a murky state and, according to the commentary, plenty of floating debris after the week's heavy rains, it wasn't a pretty affair. Grey, leaden skies but thankfully dry conditions kept the sun away but the humidity up. Washington, like any major city, doesn't look that good in the dull but you have to applaud the efforts that they made to stage this race. OK, so it's a ghost town at weekends anyway but there was some great architecture to look at while the leading group of five build on their lead and stuck a two minute advantage on the clock by the end of the 40k sightseeing trip. All the rest of the competition were in the chase pack - excepting de Villiers who lost it on a U-turn, unshipped his chain and abandoned after losing a further minute.

Brownlee hit the run hard and fast, just as he did in Madrid, and Gomez and Petzold looked like the only ones likely to even have a hope of making a decent challenge. On the third lap Gomes seemed to drift off the pace a bit but then pounced and overtook Petzold to close the gap to about five metres before deciding that perhaps saving a bit for next weekend's $1 million bonanza might be a better bet. Al could hardly care less and cruised in with time to high five a few spectators and seemed hardly winded. Youth - they should bottle and sell it...

"It was great to have another good result at a world championship race. The venue here in Washington DC is fantastic; it’s rare to get the chance to race in a setting like this, it was pretty amazing! It was a hard race, a windy bike and I really had to push on the run to get rid of the other guys. I kept looking behind me on the run and they were still there, and finally on the last lap they weren’t,” said Brownlee in a finish line interview for the ITU.

Will Clarke finished in 10th place, Stuart Hayes 17th, Tim Don 18th and Gavin Noble (IRL) was 25th.

The women's race had slightly brighter and warmer conditions, and as expected Emma won... though it was Olympic bronze medallist Moffatt, rather than perennial favourite Snowsill who took the honours! We have the full ITU race report online HERE. Third place went to Daniella Ryf (SUI). Helen Jenkins was fifth, Kerry Lang 21st and Aileen Morrison (IRL) was 25th.

A full set of results is posted HERE