Joao Silva, a 22-year-old Portuguese phenomenon, ran away from a much more honored field on a 100-degrees-plus day to take a 14-seconds margin of victory over Russia’s Alexandr Brukhankov at the Yokohama World Championship Series men’s race.

Silva, who finished 27th at Beijing a week ago, blazed out front with a sizzling 7:02 split for the first 2.5 kilometer lap of the 10k run, then held on for a 30:19 10k, topping Brukhankov's second-best 30:27 split by almost precisely his 14-seconds margin of victory.

Brukhankov's runner-up finish matched his finish at both the London and Kitzbuhel World Championship Series races.

Taking the final spot on the podium was Dimitry Polyansky, whose closing 31:02 run placed him 3rd, 29 seconds behind fellow Russian Brukhankov.

Olympic gold (2000) and silver (2008) medalist Simon Whitfield of Canada rose to his best finish of the year in WCS competition – 4th place, just 11 seconds back of Polyansky, closing with a 31:15 run.

Matt Chrabot lost a photo finish to Whitfield and came 5th, one of the American men’s best performances of the year in WCS competition.

Continuing his quixotic quest to make the Australian Olympic team at age 39, two-time Ironman World Champion and 1997 ITU World Champion Chris McCormack led the field after a huge pack finish on the bike, but faded to 34th, 3:47 off the lead after a 34:07 run.

Yokohama World Championship Series Triathlon
Yokohama, Japan
September 19, 2011
D 1.5k / B 40k / R 10k

Results

Elite Men

1. Joao Silva (POR) 1:49:21
2. Alexandr Brukhankov (RUS) 1:49:35.
3. Dimitry Polyansky (RUS) 1:50:04
4. Simon Whitfield (CAN) 1:50:15
5. Matt Chrabot (USA) 1:50:15
6. Adam Bowden (GBR) 1:50:19
7. Ruedi Wild (SUI) 1:50:20
8. Tim Don GBR) 1:50:27
9. Bent McMahon (CAN) 1:50:29
10. Yuichi Hosoda (JPN) 1:50:42