The 21-year-old Yorkshireman looked sprightly from the start, placing highly in the 1500 metres swim before repeatedly attacking during the hilly 40 kilometres cycle as he helped to establish a small lead group of just 11 athletes that included Gomez and Courtney Atkinson from Australia

But it was on the run where the Briton impressed as he obliterated the opposition in a race he had finished third in 12 months ago.

After just 2.5km he had a 30 second lead and continued to pull away to register his first ITU world series victory by 48 seconds, crossing the line in 1 hour 51min 27sec.

Despite not winning a series race before, Brownlee has had notable success before, winning the World Junior Championships in 2006 and World under-23 Championships last year.

Brownlee, who has abandoned a medical career to pursue his triathlon ambitions, had finished 12th in the Olympics in Beijing last year.

Gomez, who returned to action following an ankle injury sustained after the Olympics, just missed out on silver as Atkinson kicked late to take second and his ninth podium place finish in his last 10 races.

The Spaniard took third with Germany ’s Maik Petzold in fourth and Ivan Vasiliev from Russia in fifth.

Olympic champion, Jan Frodeno, from Germany ran through to tenth from the second pack.

Brownlee said: “It was the perfect race for me really.

"Everything seemed to go right from the start, I couldn't believe it.

"I had a fantastic swim next to Vasiliev and he just took me from there.

"The first two bike laps were really hard as we settled into a good group and someone said we had 45 seconds and I thought ‘where did that come from?’; and then when it was 1:30.

“I went off on the run and I thought, ‘Right I'm going to make this hard after the tough bike' and before I knew it I had 30 seconds.

"I thought I was going to blow up on that last lap, but it was great to hold on.”

Will Clarke was Britain ’s next finisher in 14th, just ahead of Olly Freeman in 17th.

Stuart Hayes was 32nd whilst Tim Don pulled out after the bike ride.

The women’s race was won by New Zealand ’s Andrea Hewitt in a sprint finish with Lisa Norden from Sweden.

Jess Harrison from France was third.

Top Briton was 2008 ITU World Champion, Helen Jenkins, in 16th.

Rising star Hollie Avil was forced to pull out on the bike with a puncture.