It makes four International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Championships in the Brownlee household, as older brother Alistair has earned world titles in the junior, under-23 and elite categories.

The younger Brownlee, 20, topped veteran Britain team-mate Tim Don, finishing 12 seconds ahead.

"I guess I'm lucky because I raced as a Junior last year, and Juniors race the sprint distance," said Brownlee, the 2009 European Junior Triathlon champion.

"I think I have a bit more experience at this kind of race than a lot of these guys and that helped today."

Don, who has previously won World Championships in Lausanne in the junior and elite categories, completed the one-two British punch, finishing five seconds ahead of Frenchman David Hauss.

"There's something about Lausanne that makes it a special place for me," Don said.

"When I won the junior world title here in 1999, it really set up my career and made me believe in myself.

"This is one of my favourite places to race."

Seventy-three men dived into the 21-degree water of Lake Geneva to kick things off, and after just over nine minutes in the Lake, Canada's Andrew McCartney led the way out of the swim.

He was joined by a group of five men, including Brownlee.

"That was one of the hardest swims I've ever done," Brownlee said.

"Everyone was pushing really hard from the start."

Onto the hilly and technical four-lap bike course, Brownlee led a break of five men on the first lap.

As the group of five headed onto lap two, they had a 15-second advantage on the big chase group, led by America's Greg Bennett and Cameron Dye.

The chase pack was able to catch the leaders on the second lap, thanks in large part to the strong riding of Dye and Bennett.

After a hard 20 kilometres of riding, a group of over 50 men rolled into the second transition together, leaving the race to the fastest 5km run.

It was clear early on that the run would come down to Brownlee and Don, as the pair pulled away on the first of two run laps, with Hauss and Australia's Brad Kahlefeldt giving chase.

Brownlee pulled away from his countryman as he started the final 2.5kim lap, and cruised to the win in 52min 58sec, with Don hitting the finish line 12 seconds later.

Hauss finished third in 53:16.


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April 2010: Jonathan Brownlee - Moving up and setting my sights on my brother
February 2010: Exclusive - Alistair Brownlee picks his brother as biggest threat to Olympic glory
October 2009: Brownlee brothers given civic reception by Leeds
September 2009: British triathletes finish top of medals table after more success