HORSFORTH’S Alistair Brownlee followed up his season’s opening victory in Madrid to claim a second straight Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series win in Washington to put him top of the rankings three races in to the eight race series.

Former Bradford Grammar School pupil Brownlee followed up his victory in Madrid to win in Washington and lead the ITU World Championship Series standings Brownlee’s victory sees him displace Russia’s Dmitry Polyansky who won Sunday’s European U-23 Championship in Italy.

It wasn’t easy for Brownlee to repeat his success as the field was full of top class athletes, including the first four from the Beijing Olympics. Olympic champion Jan Frodeno, from Germany, ran well in the series’ second leg to finish tenth and Canada’s Simon Whitfield, started his season with a disappointing 14th and both wanted to make amends in the US Capital. Bevan Docherty from New Zealand, who took bronze in Beijing and won the opening leg in Tongyeong, was looking for his second victory.

Brownlee was full of confidence though, having won the previous weekend’s French Grand Prix in Beauvais, once again beating Gomez to the line.

In Washington Brownlee was in the thick of the action from the very start as he helped to form a strong swim pack with 2008 World Champion Javier Gomez, Germany’s Maik Petzold and the strong American pair of Andy Potts and Hunter Kemper.

They managed to instigate a break away which carried onto the cycle, as Germany’s Olympic champion, Jan Frodeno, was frustratingly left just out of the action.

The lead pack of five were pegged at 40 seconds for much of the 40km cycle, however, in the final couple of laps around the capital the chasers slackened the pace and allowed the leaders to pull out to an unassailable two minute advantage by second transition.

Brownlee tried to utilise the same tactics that took him to victory in Madrid as he surged hard to open up an early lead on the run. However, both Gomez and Petzold dug deep to rein him back in as the Americans were dropped.

The three Europeans proceeded to tussle with each other until the final 2.5km lap when Brownlee made his decisive move, pulling away from Gomez late on to “It was great to have another good result at a world championship race,” said Brownlee, “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.”

2009 Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Rankings (after race three of eight): 1, Alistair Brownlee (GB) 1600 pts; 2, Brad Kahlefeldt (Australia) 1536 pts; 3, Courtney Atkinson (Australia) 1437 pts; 4, Javier Gomez (Spain) 1425 pts; 5, Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 1372 pts .

The 21-year-old Brownlee had put in a blistering performance in Madrid, storming to victory in a time of 1:51.27, running away from 2008 World Champion Javier Gomez.

The former U-23 and junior world champion put together a flawless race in the Spanish capital sending tremors through the triathlon world.

The Dextro Triathlon ITU World Championship Series comes to London on August 15, where the competition will be intense as athletes strive to grab vital points before the Grand Final in Australia.