ALISTAIR Brownlee reigned supreme in Leeds for the second year in a row by once again defeating younger brother Jonny in the latest World Triathlon Series event.

The elder Brownlee has skipped the first three races of the season, opting instead to turn his attention more towards 'Ironman' events since retaining his Olympic title last year, but proved he is still the man to beat in this format in his home city.

Roared on by up to 100,000 lining the streets, the 29-year-old completed the 1.5kilometre swim in Roundhay Park and the 38.6km bike ride and 10km run around the city centre in one hour, 46 minutes and 51 seconds.

It was a familiar second place for Olympic silver medallist Jonny, who at least made amends for a disappointing result in Yokohama last month, when he crashed his bike before coming home 42nd, while Spain's Fernando Alarza finished third.

The Brownlees were racing together for the first time since Alistair memorably carried stricken Jonny over the line in last year's World Series finale in Cozumel in Mexico.

They were among the first out of the water here - in a field that did not contain world champion Mario Mola or their great rival Javier Gomez - and were part of the lead group on the bike leg alongside Pierre Le Corre and Aurelien Raphael before breaking away from the French pair after the first 10km.

They kept increasing their advantage as the laps ticked away, with Jonny largely setting the pace, and were clear of the chasing pack by more than a minute when they began their run together.

Alistair hit the front and opened up a gap over Jonny around the halfway stage and could afford to take in the reaction to his arrival on Millennium Square before walking over the line to a raucous reception.

The women's race was won by reigning world champion Flora Duffy of Bermuda ahead of America's Taylor Spivey and Italy's Alice Betto, while British pair Jessica Learmonth and an off-colour Non Stanford finished sixth and 11th respectively.

Learmonth led after the swimming leg but dropped back into the chasing pack on the bike to help team-mate Stanford and eventually finished just over four minutes adrift of the winner, still a personal best in the World Series for the 29-year-old.