Jonathan Brownlee dominated his rivals to claim a convincing victory in the ITU World Triathlon Series in Auckland.
The former world champion and Olympic bronze medallist was in control throughout, supported by Slovakian training partner Richard Varga on the swim and British team-mate Tom Bishop on the bike, who finally come home 13th.
But he took control himself on the run, bursting out of the second transition to establish a clear advantage over reigning world champion Javier Gomez, France's Pierre Le Corre and current series leader Mario Mola.
Brownlee finished fifth in the series opener in Adu Dhabi but the hilly course in Auckland - and heavy rain during the final stages of the race - certainly made the Yorkshireman feel at home.
"In Abu Dhabi I made many mistakes, and I’ve been beating myself up about it for the last few weeks," he said, after coming home 15 seconds ahead of nearest rival Gomez.
"I’ve been training hard because I didn’t want to do that again, and I wanted to be able to show how good I was.
“I really enjoyed it, I felt good and I’m pleased to win.”
Brownlee now takes up the world number one ranking, as attention switches to the next round on the Gold Coast in two weeks.
“Jonny has had a very good winter and he got validation of that. Now he can push on for the rest of the year. It was good to see Tom working strongly on the bike too," said British Triathlon performance director Brendan Purcell.
“Jonny was outstanding. You can only beat the people in front of you and he did that comfortably.”
Great Britain's Lucy Hall posted one of her best senior results to finish 17th in the women's race, which was won by American Gwen Jorgensen.
Meanwhile, Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee, who missed this round through injury, is hopeful of a return in time for the fourth round of the series in Cape Town late next month. Former world champion Non Stanford, who has been sidelined for nearly 12 months, also hopes to comeback for the race in South Africa.
© Sportsbeat 2015
