Jonny Brownlee insisted there has been no power shift in triathlon’s foremost family despite his silver medal in London at the weekend and brother Alistair’s dramatic collapse.

Alistair went into the race as the hot favourite having won all six of the previous World Championship Series races he had entered, while Jonny was a junior trying to make his mark on the biggest stage.

Alistair dominated the WCS last season, romping to the world title, while he had shown he was fully recovered from the femoral stress fracture he suffered at the start of this year by winning on his return in Madrid last month and then emphatically taking gold at the European Championships.

All appeared to be going well in Hyde Park for the 22-year-old. Only his brother and Spain’s Javier Gomez could live with him but his earlier exertions clearly took their toll and, when his great rival Gomez kicked on the run, the world champion could not respond.

While Jonny continued in pursuit of the Spaniard, Alistair struggled before eventually staggering across the line in tenth place before being rushed to the medical tent.

Reports quickly confirmed it was nothing more than exhaustion but Jonny was not the only one to react with shock that he was the Brownlee taking to the podium.

The 20-year-old, though, has no doubt his brother will return stronger than ever at the next race in Kitzbuhel in three weeks’ time.

“I felt sorry for Alistair because he’s a great champion but these things happen,” said Jonny.

“Maybe he’d eaten something wrong. Small percentages can make a massive difference.

“He’s an incredible athlete my brother, he hasn’t got a weakness at all and he’s so tough. When he’s tired he gets good training sessions out as well.

“He’s still better than me but he had an unfortunate race and it happens. I had a really good day and he had a bit of bad luck.”

With his stunning performance, last year’s world junior silver medallist put himself firmly in the frame for a place at the London Olympics in two years’ time, which will take place over part of the same course the athletes raced on yesterday.

The 20-year-old, though, is taking nothing for granted, especially with countrymen Stuart Hayes and Tim Don making it four Britons in the top 13.

Jonny continued: “It’s such a shock so I’m going to go back and enjoy it.

“I’m still young so I’m going to have to accept I’m going to have good races and bad races because as a young athlete you always have ups and downs. This is a definite up and I’m just going to do my best.

“Qualifying for the British team is going to be really hard. There’s lots of amazing Brits out there so I have to keep improving and then hopefully qualify and then we’ll see in London.”