Jonathan Brownlee is OUT of Super League Hamilton Island with injury
Injury is not the way that Olympic Silver medallist Jonathan Brownlee wanted to start his 2017 season – but, ‘you can’t always get what you want’, and alas, a hip injury means that he will not be part of the first Super League Hamilton Island event from 17th-19th March.
With the second World Triathlon Series race of the year in Gold Coast, Australia on 8th April, that would appear to also cast doubt on whether he’ll be ready to make that long trip either. In a year in which the ITU World Triathlon Championship is the goal, having to play catch-up in WTS points terms for the remainder of 2017 would certainly not have been part of the plan – especially with Mola, Gomez, Murray et al starting their campaign in Abu Dhabi, tomorrow.
Here is the full announcement from Super League Triathlon today.
Rio Olympics silver medalist Jonny Brownlee today announced due to injury he will be unable to compete at the first Super League race on Hamilton Island in less than three weeks’ time.
“The doctors confirmed my hip injury, which is really disappointing as I was in full swing preparing for the race and the hot conditions,” he said. An Instagram post earlier showed him cycling inside a heated room. “It is sad to miss out on this opportunity, but the great thing about Super League is it’s not just this one event. It’s a series and I believe I can still be in the running to win.”
Super League co-founder Michael D’Hulst shares Jonny’s disappointment, but explained that the Super League series format allows athletes to make up for not starting in an earlier event. “Points are awarded according to finish position after each event, and these are tallied at the end of the season to decide the series winner. We are rolling out a Double Points Day in our upcoming events and if Jonny does well then, he certainly has a fighting chance at a series win.”
Jonny’s older brother Alistair remains on-track to start at Super League Hamilton Island. The two-time Olympic gold medalist is looking forward to the unique racing. “Super League Triathlon is really exciting to me,” said Alistair. “It’s racing across a number of different days, a number of different formats, in different ways, which should suit a really hard style of racing.”
The Brownlee brothers have taken their sibling rivalry to world championship and Olympic level, bringing about a joint domination of the sport never seen before. With one Brownlee absent, it falls to Alistair to stamp their name on Super League Hamilton Island. Featuring three different race formats that throw the traditional order of swim-bike-run and the usual strategy that goes with it out the window, we may yet see the Brownlee dominance overthrown — or prove their might yet again.
Jonny stated, “Number 05 shall return! I will see you at the next race. Super League is not won yet. I will be watching Super League Hamilton Island keenly and if I can’t win it, then I hope Alistair does.”
Watch these three days of racing unfold. Super League Hamilton Island will be broadcast live on www.superleaguetriathlon.com on 17-19 March 2017 from 1700 AEST.
