Olympic champ Brownlee takes record Ironman win to qualify for Worlds

Two-time Olympic triathlon gold medallist Alistair Brownlee has qualified for the 2020 Ironman World Championships with a stunning victory on Sunday (1st December).

The Briton won the Ironman Western Australia in Busselton in a course record time of 7 hours, 45 minutes, and 21 seconds.

He took victory in the men's race by more than 10 minutes.

According to official course timings, Brownlee complete the 3.8km swim section in a time of 46:29, before clocking 4:10:32 for the 180km bike leg. Brownlee then ran the 42.2km marathon distance in 2:43:39.

Tokyo Olympic triathlon or IronMan World Championships in 2020 for Brownlee?

After retaining his Olympic title at Rio 2016, the Yorkshire-based athlete announced he would spend a couple of years focusing on the longer triathlon distances, including IronMan events.

Brownlee had suggested that he would make a final decision about his plans for 2020 after the race in Western Australia.

The 31-year-old had kept open the possibility of going for a third Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.

The triathlon in Japan takes place on Saturday 1st August, over the much shorter 'Olympic' distance. It includes a 1.5km swim, 40km bike ride, and 10k run.

Following Sunday's impressive performance in the longer distance event, Brownlee will now decide whether to continue the endurance training regime in order to take up his place at the IronMan World Championships in Kona, Hawaii on 10th October 2020.

The two-time ITU World Tri Series champion finished 21st at Kona 2019 in his debut full IronMan.

Brownlee and younger brother Jonathan, himself a two-time Olympic medal-winning triathlete, documented Alistair's training for the 2019 event in a series of YouTube videos.

Brownlee had previously said that the Tokyo 2020 race would be his final Olympic triathlon.

Could we see him double up in 2020 and go for a third gold as well as the IronMan world title?