Triathlon: Trained by a Scot, the Brownlee boys look forward to Glasgow 2014 after overcoming all obstacles to claim medals

Sports writer

Wednesday 8 August 2012

IT was the Brownlees versus the world yesterday.

Triathlon medallists Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee are joined by Javier Gomez in the race to be first aboard the bikes after the swim stage in Hyde Park. Picture: Nick Ponty

Custom byline text:

Doug Gillon

The world lost. The Yorkshire lads, Alistair and Jonathan, born two years and one week apart, were separated by just 31 seconds at the end of the Olympic triathlon, winning gold and bronze.

These are the first British Olympic medals in the sport, from the first UK siblings to take medals in the same individual event since the tennis singles at the 1900 Olympics in Paris. The Dohertys, five-time Wimbledon winner Laurie and brother Reggie, won gold and silver. Sport was different then – live pigeon shooting was on the programme. And no triathlon. It was "invented" in the mid-1920s and became an Olympic discipline only in 2000.

Rival nations were rumoured to have a strategy to thwart the Brownlees. If there was one, it came unhinged. The field was buried by their pace, class and courage as the pair dictated the race. However, Spanish double International Triathlon Union world champion Javier Gomez split the brothers, taking silver, 20 seconds clear of Jonathan, his task made easier by a 15-second penalty imposed on the Englishman for mounting his bike inches before the start-line. Big brother opined: "Penalties are a disgrace in triathlon. They're ruining the sport. You start and you finish, and the first three across the line win." Neither would say, however, that the penalty cost silver. "I don't think I'd have beaten him," said Jonny. "I was struggling to keep up."It was his first penalty in more than 100 races. "When the coaches hung out the board: '31: 15-second penalty', I thought: 'Alistair's got a penalty. What an idiot.' Then I thought: 'I'm 31. I'll have to run a bit faster."Alistair won in 1hr 46min 25sec, with Gomez, 11 seconds down. Alistair, 26, said he tried to slow the pace on the 10k run, which might have allowed his brother to serve the stand-still penalty and stay in touch. "I thought maybe he could run back through the field, but Javier was too strong," he said.The victor was so much in command that he had time to grab a Union flag from a spectator, unfurl it and raise it aloft before crossing the line in Hyde Park at a slow walk. "I didn't know too much at that stage," he admitted later. "I was losing it a bit."Jonathan described the penalty ordeal as "the longest 15 seconds of my life", watching the seconds tick away on the digital screen. "I tripped as I came out and thought: 'It's not going to happen'."He finished in 1:46.56, but seconds after he was embraced by Alistair, he collapsed. He was taken off by medics and covered in ice and swathed in wet towels. His mum, Cath, who is a doctor, went into the room. An hour later, though he claimed to be all right, his pulse was still being monitored.Crowds were 10-deep against the crush barriers two hours before the start. Joggers are ever-present in Hyde Park, but the number of fantasist fatties, and few fitties, dreaming the dream, lent a surreal atmosphere. An estimated 200,000 packed the park as the athletes, wearing wet suits on a chill morning, plunged in for the 1500m swim. At the front, a crocodile-file of green caps bobbed. In their wake came the watery peloton. From a distance, the water boiled, like gulls attacking a shoal of herring.Three resident families of notoriously aggressive swans and their cygnets had been relocated by wildlife officers, so when three Canada geese flew directly behind the swimmers it seemed an avian protest was being made. But all eyes were on the flight of the Browlees.Richard Varga was first out of the water in 16:56 with the brothers within eight seconds. The first five immediately broke away on the bike. There were seven laps, over a 43k trail, which led round Buckingham Palace. All too flat for Alistair Brownlee's liking, so the hammer went down. Rivals lost the chance to attack, and with 2000 Olympic champion Simon Whitfield crashing early, on a speed bump, another threat was defused.Brownlee completed the ride fastest in 59:08 and the 10k fastest in 29.07, enough to trigger athletics aspirations for England. Assured the course was accurately measured, he said: "There's the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, which is very exciting."The brothers had spent the past two months training in Switzerland, but the regime in Yorkshire, at Baildon Lake, was the toughest. "I trained in minus-15 once," said Jonny. "There was snow, and I cycled across the lake. Only I didn't know it was a lake and slipped and put my hand right through the ice. I was soaked through and it was about two hours – 30 miles – to get home." The medals belong to Yorkshire, and gold will put Alistair's face on a stamp. He already fronts the phone book. But Scotland can claim a wee share. The former head of PE at Edinburgh Unversity, Malcolm Brown, is the sport's performance manager, now based at Leeds University. "One of the first things I did was to recruit Jack Maitland," said Brown. From Aboyne, Maitland featured regularly in the pages of Herald Sport in the 1980s and '90s. He was a GB orienteer, British fell-running and duathlon champion, and Scottish triathlon champion seven times. He was first Scot when triathlon became a Commonwealth demonstration in 1990. "He was responsible for bringing the Brownlees in at the beginning, and developing them, and then bringing me in is as a running coach," said Brown. He's a Londoner, but was an adopted Scot, coaching several Scottish internationalists.

Contextual targeting label:

Families

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Triathlon: Trained by a Scot, the Brownlee boys look forward to Glasgow 2014 after overcoming all obstacles to claim medals

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED