As the blue carpet of the finishing straight loomed into view, Vicky Holland and Non Stanford knew a triathlon bronze medal would end up hanging in the flat they share in Leeds. One would own it, the other just get to stare. And in an all-British scrap for the prize, it was Holland who had the most left to give as the former world champion was left behind.
Small margins, three seconds in fact. But there was no sense of a prize begrudged as Stanford was left in the hideous position of fourth at the end of a gruelling swim, bike and run that, thankfully, took place in conditions less brutal than the men’s race 48 hours before. “At least we have one medal in the house now,” Stanford conceded.
“But to have to beat out your best friend, your training partner, your housemate is hard,” Holland added. “I guess about 5km into the run, I knew that it was going to come down to me or Non for a medal.
“We’ve always said it’s fair game when it comes to the run. We knew we wanted a medal and we didn’t want to let Barbara Riveros back in from behind. So at that point we just had to keep the pressure on and keep running for the bronze.”
Gold went to world champion Gwen Jorgensen with the American, whose bid at London 2012 was blown up by a tyre puncture, confirming herself as the sport’s best of the best by pulling away from the large group that began the run together to win by 40 seconds from Swiss defending champion Nicola Spirig.
“It is pretty crazy to show up on the day after four years and accomplish what I said I wanted to accomplish for four years,” the champion said.
The pace of the breakaway on the cycle stage derailed the hopes of Helen Jenkins with the Nairn-born hope fading to 19th. “I felt a bit off the last couple of days but it is the Olympics and that was the best I could do,” she said. “I’m so proud of Vicky coming third and Non fourth.”
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