Brownlee’s opponents in the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship London, which is presented by Tata Steel, include Germany’s Olympic champion Jan Frodeno and Spain’s Javier Gomez, who was runner-up in last year’s series.

The Briton dominated the 2009 season, winning five of the eight World Championship races, including the Grand Final, but a stress fracture caused him to make a late start to this season.

He nevertheless battled back to win the European title three weeks ago, finishing 40 seconds clear of Gomez.

"Training was coming along nicely, but then I had the stress fracture," Brownlee said.

"That was a bit of a curve ball.

"I’m in pretty good shape now.

"That’s the first half of the battle, the other half is to race as well as you can. 

"I’ve been on an upward curve, but you never really know what you’re going to do until you dive in. 

"It was fantastic racing here last season.

"There’s some pressure there, but I’ve got to try not to get too caught up in it and race my own race."

Gomez is aiming to secure back-to-back wins following his victory in Hamburg last weekend.

He missed out in London last year, crashing in the cycling phase. 

"That can happen in any race, it was just bad luck," he said.

"I like the course here and I think it’s going to be a really, really fast race on Sunday.

"I’m feeling confident after my victory in Hamburg and I’m looking forward to the race."

The event starts tomorrow with the women’s event, where the field includes Olympic champion Emma Snowsill and Britain’s former world champion, Helen Jenkins andSwitzerland’s defending champion Nicola Spirig.

"We’re so lucky to have such a high class event in our own country," Jenkins said.

"It makes me a little bit more nervous.

"It makes me feel that I have to perform a bit better when I have a home crowd, but that’s good practice for 2012. 

"It’s a really good start list, I’ve been looking forward to how I’m going to compare with them. I just want to get out there and race."
 
Paul Coleman, Managing Director of the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series, said: "This is the probably one of the strongest fields we will ever seen in the history of triathlon.

"It’s a very exciting weekend for triathlon."

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