Scotland's Marc Austin wins bronze in Gold Coast triathlon

The 24-year old won Scotland's first mendal of the 2018 Commonwealth Games

Published 5th Apr 2018
Last updated 8th Apr 2018

Team Scotland's Marc Austin claimed the nation's first medal of Gold Coast 2018 with a bronze in the men's individual triathlon.

Scotland's Austin came 22nd in Glasgow four years ago but felt he could succeed in Australia.

He said: "I was obviously scared to dream about that kind of thing because it's way beyond what I've done before but I knew I was capable of it. I thought, 'I could beat the Brownlees here'.''

English brothers Alistair and Jonny Brownlee were strong favourites in the build up, but Alistair dropped out of contention at the start of the the run phase, eventually trailling in 10th.

Jonny finished seventh as South Africa's Henri Schoeman claimed gold with Australia's Jacob Birtwhistle second.

Commonwealth triathlons consist of of a 750m open-water swim, a 20km cycle and a 5km run.

Double Olympic champion Alistair led after the transition from bike to run but quickly dropped back down the field.

He said: "About three quarters of it went alright. I knew I was going to struggle on the run and I was downplaying my chances. I've only run a handful of times in the last month or so.

"The last few weeks has been making sure the calf is alright to make sure I could get round properly.

"The swim and bike went well and I was just trying to pull that gap out as much as possible to give Jonny the best chance. It was a shame it didn't work out for him.''

Jonny added: "It was pretty terrible today. I didn't feel great. I've had ups and downs and I was injured in January so I missed a lot of training but I thought I was going to be better than that.

"I dived in and felt pretty weak on the swim and then I'm normally one of the strongest on the bike but I didn't feel great. Then I started running and thought 'oh dear, I'm in trouble here.'

"I knew Henri was in good shape and my first thought was 'I wish I was fit' because I would have gone with him.'

"I had a stress response in my femur at the start of January so I didn't run for five or six weeks. I'm trying to get my injuries out of the way now.''

He said: "I was obviously scared to dream about that kind of thing because it's way beyond what I've done before but I knew I was capable of it. I thought, 'I could beat the Brownlees here'.''