British brothers Alistair Brownlee and Jonathan Brownlee harvested the first and third places at ITU World Championship Grand Final men's elite group here on Saturday.

As the final stage of the ITU World Championship Series, the Beijing event attracted nearly all the top-level triathlon athletes all around the world.

No athlete established a clear lead in swimming or cycling. Alistair and Jonathan, who stayed 1-2 on the current world rankings, steered for the top two places when they spurted out of the main group in the first lap. After three laps, Jonathan was left behind by his brother.

Alistair clocked 1:48:06 to finish with the gold, while Jonathan was surpassed by Swiss star Sven Riederer in the last few hundred meters, and finally got a bronze. Riederer turned out to be the silver medalist.

"Last time I came to Beijing it was really hot, so it's great to have a totally different weather today," said Alistair about the rainy and cool weather on Saturday.

"Very glad to win the competition, I'm looking forward to next year's London Olympics," added the current world number one. "I and my brother compete almost every day, and I think it's a healthy competition."

Former European junior champion Jonathan, who was listed right behind his elder brother on the world rankings, was a freshman on men's elite group.

"It's my second world championships," said Jonathan. "The Olympics? It's a long season, so I'm really not sure about it."

Local athlete Bai Faquan found himself the last finisher after he completed his first world championship race with nearly two hours.

"It's great for me to compete with the world class athletes," said Bai. "My main goal is to learn something from them."