Alistair could not make it a double gold for the Brownlee family at the event in Holland with his younger brother Jonathan winning the junior men’s title earlier today.

 

The 21-yera-old Yorkshireman, currently top of the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series after victories in Madrid and Washington DC, lost out by only 27 seconds to 2008 world champion Javier Gomez from Spain who won the gold with a time of 1 hour 44min 14sec. 

 

The two athletes were neck and neck throughout the race before Gomez began to run his way to gold on the third element.

 

Jonathan has now emulated his older brother Alistair, who won the competition in 2007.

 

It has already been a successful year for Jonathan having won gold at the Australia Youth Olympic Festival earlier this year.

 

The 19-year-old from Leeds, who had finished third in Lisbon last year, said: "The race went very well today.

 

"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.”

Jonathan wasn’t the only British athlete who was successful with Vicky Graves from Yorkwinning bronze in the junior women's race with a time of 59:47.

 

She said: “I had a very good swim and came out with the lead pack, so was very pleased.

 

"The bike was a good pace and I pushed on up the hills.