OLYMPIC silver medallist Jonny Brownlee won the penultimate ITU World Triathlon Series race of the season in Edmonton on Sunday to edge closer to overall leader Mario Mola.

Brownlee, who finished second behind brother Alistair in Rio, looked in fine form over the sprint distance and gave himself plenty of time to enjoy the victory ahead of Spain's Mola in second and third-placed Richard Murray of South Africa.

Brownlee now sits 235 points behind Mola in the rankings with just the grand final in Cozumel, Mexico, to come later this month.

The 26-year-old said: "We were riding hard, and then I got on to the run and I knew they (the group) were going to catch up a little, but I felt I was getting better during the run, I felt like I was getting a bit fitter.

"It's all about Mario in Cozumel now. He's got four wins and one second; you can't do much better than that. If he has a good race, he's won."

"Hopefully he’ll (Alistair) help on the swim and bike, we’ll see what kind of shape he’s in. But it’ll make a big difference.”

Richard Varga kicked off the day with a splash, leaving the competition in his wake when he secured a sizeable lead out of the one-lap 750m swim. Training partner Jonny Brownlee followed Varga out of the water next, along with Aaron Royle, Matthew Sharpe and Matthew Roberts.

But it was only Varga, Brownlee and Royle that blasted through the first transition in top form, dropping Sharpe and Roberts for an early break on the four-lap 20km bike.

Behind them, Murray made it out of T1 in fourth position 20 seconds back, while Columbia Threadneedle rankings leader Mola suffered a 40-second deficit out of the swim. Although the chase inched within six seconds of the leading trio into T2, a slow transition from Mola meant Brownlee had the opportunity to pull ahead on the first of three run legs. He quickly put ten seconds between himself and the chase.

It was a pivotal point in the race, as Brownlee blasted away, and never slowed down. Although Mola pulled himself back into second position by the second lap, it wasn’t enough to shut Brownlee down, as the Olympic silver medallist increased his lead to 18 seconds onto the bell lap.

From there, it was Brownlee’s race to win, which he did by 16 seconds. Behind him, training team-mates Murray and Mola went shoulder to shoulder until Mola unleashed his speed on the last half of the last lap. Murray, who was recovering from flu, took bronze.

Olympic champion Alistair was not racing in Canada and is 19th overall but fellow British athletes Grant Sheldon, Tom Bishop and Adam Bowden all finished inside the top seven. Olympic bronze medallist Vicky Holland was fifth in the women's race.