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Brownlee brothers take lead to Grand Final

Alistair Brownlee will lead going into the Grand Final © Getty Images

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Alistair Brownlee opened up a 55 point lead going into next month's World Triathlon Series Grand Final with victory in Stockholm.

The Olympic champion, 25, pulled clear of the field in the bike stage and finished 14 seconds ahead of Spain's Javier Gomez. Brother Jonny Brownlee, 23, finished third a further 23 seconds back.

The British siblings top the standings ahead of next month's Grand Final, with Alistair Brownlee leading by 55 points.

Sunday's win was the 15th World Triathlon Series victory of his career and ensures an exciting finale in Hyde Park over the Olympic course on September 15.

Just 120 points separate the older Brownlee brother from Olympic silver medallist Gomez in third, with 1,200 on offer to the Grand Final winner.

It means that if Gomez was to win in London, Alistair Brownlee could finish second and still take the title. But if Jonny Brownlee is victorious, he will prevail overall, regardless of where Alistair finishes.

Both Brownlee brothers were in the leading group after the opening swim in Stockholm and were still well in contention as they started the 10-lap bike phase.

A group of eight fought it out until just under two laps to go when Alistair surprisingly broke away. He had moved five seconds clear with a lap to go before extending that to 21 seconds before the run.

He comfortably maintained his advantage on the final leg of the race to finish in one hour 43 minutes 13 seconds.

"It has been a year of injuries and disaster and not really wanting to turn up, but it is all about winning when I am not having a good day, and finding finding ways to do that," he said.

"I was going better than I thought. I've had a good last two weeks and now I have another three weeks before London so I can be pretty fit, but Javier is pretty fit as well so it should be a great race.

"I will try my best and that is all you can ask."

Behind him, brother Jonny and Gomez battled it out together for second and third on the run but the Spaniard was the stronger and kicked away with just over a lap to go.

The younger Brownlee, who won bronze at London 2012, had no complaints with his third place.

"That was a really hard race," he admitted. "I knew before it would be tough but it was a fair race and they beat me fair and square."

Information from the Press Association was used in this report

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