• London 2012 - Triathlon

Brilliant Brownlee takes triathlon gold

Alistair Brownlee crosses the line to win the triathlon © Getty Images

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Alistair Brownlee lived up to his star billing by powering to victory in the triathlon to continued GB's Olympic gold rush.

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He came into the race as the overwhelming favourite to hand GB a first Olympic gold in the triathlon and he kept in touch on the swim, remained in the leading pack on the bike and powered away from the field on the run to claim victory in a time of 1:46.25.

Brownlee was given able assistance by his brother Jonny who took a superb bronze despite incurring a time penalty mid-way through the race.

The Yorkshire brothers worked in tandem in the Serpentine, sticking together in the swim to keep tabs on Richard Vargas. They emerged from the water in the front rank, with Jonny in fourth and Alistair in sixth, and they were joined on the ride round Hyde Park by the third Brit in the field, Stu Hayes.

There was drama during the ride as Jonny Brownlee was informed that he had incurred a 15-second penalty for a transition error from swim to bike.

Hayes worked hard on the bike, which was his role coming into the race, and his efforts ensured no-one was able to break away. The pace of the Brits also shelled a few of the key players and the transition from bike to run resulted in the Brownlees breaking away with Spain's Javier Gomez.

Alistair Brownlee took on the front-running role and his pace gave the rest of the field no chance to get back in the hunt.

During the third lap Jonny Brownlee dropped off the pace of his brother, at which point Alistair stepped things up and opened up a gap on Gomez.

Jonny Brownlee took his time penalty after the third lap, but still emerged in the bronze medal position and he maintained that all the way to the finish.

At the head of the race, Alistair Brownlee kept pouring it on and Gomez could not make any inroads. Brownlee took a few anxious looks over his shoulder towards the finish but he was well clear and took a Union Jack on the final run to the line and had enough in hand to walk through the tape and make it 19 Olympic golds for GB.

"I am massively proud," Alistair Brownlee said. "The pressure was stacked up and so many things put to bed today.

"To get two British brothers on the podium, you could not ask for more and with Stuart Hayes we really were a team of three. Today we had a plan and we executed it really well."

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