British triathlete Alistair Brownlee narrowly failed to add the European Championship title to his burgeoning list of achievements in the sport when he was beaten in to second place of a competitive race by Javier Gomez of Spain in Holten, Netherlands - though the Yorkshire athlete's brother, Jonathan, did emulate his older sibling by taking gold in the junior event.
Alistair, who leads the ITU World Championship series after back-to-back victories in Madrid and Washington this season, won the junior event in 2007 and his younger brother chose the same stage on which to set down a marker as to his own potential with a dominating swim, cycle and run.
"The race went very well today," said the younger Brownlee, who also won gold at the Australia Youth Olympic Festival earlier this year.
"I knew before I started that the course would suit me especially with the hills on both the bike and run. I swam well coming out second. Not much happened on the bike but I had to concentrate very hard to stay at the front.
"I then just set off very hard on the run and that was it. The atmosphere was great in such a small but enthusiastic town.”
Vicky Graves secured bronze in the women's junior event with an impressive sub-hour time and there was further British success over the weekend with eight gold medals in the age group events, with double Olympic gold medalist James Cracknell finishing in the top ten of his category in his competitive debut for the national team.
Gomez, the 2008 world champion, currently leads the ITU ranking after his fifth place finish in the Hy-Vee Elite Cup, with Brownlee second.
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