Alistair Brownlee hungry as ever to seal Olympic qualification

The double defending triathlon champion was the surprise omission from the initial Team GB squad for the delayed Tokyo Games in August.

Younger brother Jonny is the only male athlete picked so far, with the final two men to be selected ‘in the middle of 2021’ according to the selectors.

The omission was down largely to Brownlee’s inactivity over the Olympic distance in recent times, and he gave a reminder of his abilities just three days after the announcement by finishing second at a World Cup race in Valencia.

But despite having won everything there is to win in the sport, the desire is a high as ever. “I’m hungry, but in a different way,” he said.

“I still love it, it’s what I do. It’s a different hunger to what it was, but at the moment I’m super motivated, I’m really enjoying the training, and really enjoying the challenge. I’m healthy and it’s really positive.”

The big issue is whether there will be enough races to help the qualification process.

Coronavirus has decimated triathlon’s global schedule, meaning chances to impress his claims upon the selectors could be few and far between.

“With coronavirus there’s a lot of complicating factors, one of them is there not being many qualifying races for me to prepare for and try to qualify from,” said Brownlee.

“We’re hoping the world series will kick off in China in May, that there’ll then be a race in Japan, and hopefully they’re both going to be in the qualifying window.”

His performance in November at least reinforced his self-belief that at 32 he can still compete with the best.

“Valencia was a big confidence boost for me, not just because racing over sprint distance is not what I’m best at,” he said. “But it was great to have a good race against the best athletes who had been focusing on that race, whereas I hadn’t. I was pleased to get back to a place of being competitive.

“Olympic selection will be down to the World Series races and the discretion of the selectors. As long as I’m performing as well as I did in Valencia, that should be good enough.”