Gold Coast: It is rare a triathlon medal ceremony goes ahead without Alistair and Jonny Brownlee but the national anthems rang out in their absence on Thursday after the brothers had laboured to the finish line at the Commonwealth Games.
Everything was going to plan as they emerged from the swim and cycle in the leading pack. “About three quarters of it went all right,” said Alistair, “My swim went well, it was probably the only time in my career I’ve led a swim out and I was just trying to pull that gap out as much as possible.” But they went into meltdown mode on the run with Olympic champion Alistair finishing 10th and Jonny faring only slightly better in seventh.
Both later said they had been laid low by injury over the past month and realised part way into the 5km run that they would be unable to keep up with eventual winner Henri Schoeman of South Africa and silver medallist Jacob Birtwhistle of Australia. Scotland’s Marc Austin won a surprise bronze.
Alistair had been the England flag bearer at the Carrara stadium at the opening ceremony on Wednesday evening but insisted it was the after effects of an Achilles injury rather than the late night that damaged his chances. “I’ve probably run a handful of times in the last month or so and I knew that was going to be tough,” he said, “My main priority in the last two weeks has been making sure my calf held up so I could get around OK. I knew I hadn’t run very fast for more than a minute or two at a time so when you’ve got to do it for 15 it’s not going to go very well for you.”
A deluge minutes before the start of the triathlon left the men shivering on the pontoon. The waters of the Broadwater Parklands lagoon had turned a murky shade of grey, but Alistair, 29, emerged from the swim in first place with Jonny close behind. Both held their own on the bike and went into the run with every chance of winning a medal. It immediately became apparent that Alistair was not fit enough to keep pace but Jonny was poised on the shoulder of Schoeman until he could hold on no longer.
“It was pretty terrible today,” said Jonny, “I’ve had ups and downs coming into this race. I was injured at the start of January so missed a lot of training but I thought I’d be a lot better than that today.
“I dived in and I felt pretty weak on the swim. I started riding and had to work really hard to catch Alistair up,” he added, “I’m normally one of the strongest on the bike but I didn’t feel great. I started running and thought ‘oh dear’. I tried to give it everything to stay in the medals as long as I could but it just wasn’t good enough.”
There was better news for England’s Jess Learmonth who finished second in the women’s race behind world champion Flora Duffy. The 29-year-old has had a swift rise to prominence over the last year and said she was surprised to win a medal.
“I’m delighted,” she said. “I tried to enjoy it as much as I can. It wasn’t that enjoyable on the last lap of the run, with them just behind me, but I can try and enjoy it now. “We don’t really set out any plan to be honest, but I was kind of lucky that Flora Duffy and I started together and she got on to my feet and she did a lot of work on the bike, so we just did a bit each and it kind of worked out well.”
- Guardian News & Media Ltd
