The 34-year-old had been unable to secure victory at recent sprint distance events but the return to the Olympic distance raised his hopes of success.

Slovakia’s Richard Varga emerged first from the swim, followed by Britain’s Olympic silver medallist Jonathan Brownlee, the United States’ Ben Kanute and Aaron Royle of Australia.

The quartet were quickly joined by Gomez, Kristian Blummenfelt of Norway and the United States’ Seth Rider, while Spain’s Mario Mola and South Africa’s Richard Murray surprisingly lagged behind.

The leaders held off the chasing pack for the duration of the 40 kilometre bike leg in the Canadian city.

Gomez hit the front early on the 10km run and broke clear of his rivals, although Blummenfelt chased impressively.

Having pulled clear, Gomez was able to celebrate victory in a time of 1 hour 47min 50sec at the first edition of the race in Montreal.

"Yeah after so many sprint races it was good to have a proper race," said Gomez.

"It was hard from the beginning, hard on the bike, hard on the run.

"I recovered well from last week, because I felt a bit sick from Edmonton, but it was a good race today.

"I am really pleased."

Blummenfelt finished as the runner-up in 1:48:05, while Murray came through the field on the run to complete the podium places in 1:48:42.

Brownlee missed on a top three finish, crossing the line in 1:49:04 in fourth. 

Despite ending down in 14th, Mola remains top of the WTS standings on a total of 3,664 points, with Gomez moving up to second on 3,361.