New Zealand's Barclay wins triathlon gold
17-year-old ditches bothersome contact lenses before competition on his way to earning his country's first medal
Singapore: New Zealand earned its first medal of the Youth Olympics when Aaron Barclay won the gold on Monday in men's triathlon.
Barclay won the race — a 750-metre swim, 20km bike ride and 5km run — in 54 minutes, 41 seconds, 14 seconds ahead of Kevin McDowell of the United States and 23 seconds better than Alois Knable of Australia.
Barclay claimed victory in front of his parents, grandparents and Hamish Carter, who won the gold for New Zealand at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
"He was great," Carter said. "It's a fantastic result."
The 17-year-old Barclay said he ditched his contact lenses, which correct a mild case of shortsightedness, before the race because they were bothering him.
"It's quite uncomfortable, especially on the bike as they dry out very quickly," Barclay said. "I've gotten used to racing like this."
This is the first Youth Olympics, a 12-day event in which 3,600 athletes aged 14 to 18 from 204 national Olympic committees compete in 26 sports.
Youth Olympics organisers have sought to emphasise the educational and cultural benefits of bringing together teenage athletes from around the world so they are not keeping a medal tally.
In an unofficial medal tally, Russia leads with 11, followed by China with eight and the United States and Italy with five each after the second day's competition.
It's been an event of firsts for several countries. Vietnam hoisted its first Olympic gold medal ever on Sunday as weightlifter Thach Kim Tuan powered to victory in the men's 56kg division.
The 16-year-old Thach edged Xie Jiawu of China in the combined clean and jerk and snatch competition.
Vietnam had previously won silvers in women's taekwondo at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and in men's weightlifting in Beijing in 2008.
Tuvalu, a Pacific island nation of 12,000 people, made its Olympic badminton debut at the Youth Games as Tiaese Tapumanaia lost 21-1, 21-4 to Chiang Mei-hui of Taiwan on Monday.
