Double Commonwealth Games medal-winning triathlete Jonathan Brownlee made sure to put down a marker to his competitors with victory in Auckland, before insisting afterwards there is plenty more in the tank.

Brownlee was fifth in the World Triathlon Series opener in Abu Dhabi earlier this month but he stepped things up another level in New Zealand.

The 24-year-old, competing without brother Alistair who was out injured, looked strong throughout, establishing a healthy lead before crossing the line in 1:55.26 hours to beat Spanish defending champion Javier Gomez by 15 seconds.

He now takes up the world number one ranking, which he’ll carry through to the next round on the Gold Coast in two weeks.

And after putting in the hard yards in training, Brownlee believes all the work is starting to pay off.

"It was great to win. It's the first time I've won a World Series event for a while,” he said.

"I made mistakes in Abu Dhabi and have been beating myself up about it since. I wanted to show how fit I was.

"I've been practising running hard off a fast bike. I was a bit cleverer on the bike and maybe I'm a bit fitter than I was at the start of the year.

"I felt very good, the swim was great, with the bike I didn't want to do anything silly and on the run I was surprised, I had a gap which I didn't expect, it shows how hard the bike was.

"It's great to have an honest course where you can use your strength. I swim 10 hours a week, I bike 20 hours a week and I want to be able to show that."

© Sportsbeat 2015