The 26-year-old Briton, who finished second behind older brother Alistair at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, clocked a time of 51 min 39sec for the sprint distance course to beat Columbia Threadneedle Rankings leader Mario Mola by 17 seconds.

Victory sees him move within 235 points of Spaniard Mola in the race for the World Championship title, which is set to be decided at the Grand Final in Cozumel in Mexico on September 18.

"It hasn’t really changed much, it’s all about Mario in Cozumel now," said Brownlee, whose last ITU World Triathlon Series success came in the Gold Coast in Australia in April 2015.

"It’s a good result, but it’s all up to Cozumel.

"Hopefully he’ll (Alistair) help on the swim and bike, we’ll see what kind of shape he’s in.

"But yes it’ll make a big difference."

A slow second transition from Mola meant Brownlee had the opportunity to move ahead on the first of three run legs and he quickly put 10 seconds between himself and the chase.

Although Mola pulled himself back into second position by the second lap, it wasn’t enough to catch Brownlee, who had increased his lead to 18 seconds going into the bell lap and never looked back.

Despite battling illness before the meet, South Africa’s Richard Murray managed to claim bronze in 52:01.

In the women’s race, Summer Cook picked up her first career ITU World Triathlon Series victory after leading an American clean sweep.

Cook finished in 56:49 to edge Sarah True, the runner-up in 56:52, and Katie Zaferes, third in 56:56.

It was an American-led race from the start with five of the top 10 coming into the first transition hailing from the US.

The success continued through to the bike but not without pressure from overall series leader Flora Duffy of Bermuda.

On the last lap of the run, True and Duffy broke out to an early lead only for Cook to come out of nowhere with the fastest run split of the day by 12 seconds - 16:38 over five kilometres - to pass True late on.

Duffy faded down the stretch, allowing Zaferes to pass her and clinch the US women's third-ever one-two-three finish.

"I actually came into today wanting to finish in the top 10," Cook said.

"I was working really hard on the bike to stay with the group, so to be able to come off of that and have a strong run was surprising to me.

"A lot of today was finding the mental willpower to keep myself in the race and put myself in the position to have a strong result."

Fourth was enough for Duffy to hang onto her position as the leader in the Columbia Threadneedle Rankings ahead of the Grand Final in Cozumel on September 17.

The 28-year-old has a 166-point advantage over the US’s Gwen Jorgensen, the Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallist, who didn’t compete in Edmonton.