Outstanding

bronze medal.

The race, a non-drafting event, started at 8am on Amadores beach on the south west coast.

Brownlee went into an early lead on the 1.9km (1.2 miles) swim course leading at the half-way point, finishing the swim in second place behind Davide Giardini, who completed the swim in 25.16.

Brownlee just four seconds behind the leader.

Buckingham had a great swim, being eighth at the turn, finishing in ninth place (25.32), just 12 seconds behind his training partner.

The bike course of 90km (56 miles) was four loops, from Amadores to Anfi Del Mar, before turning to Puerto De Mogan, and then three loops from Amadores to Puerto Rico and back.

The Olympic champion set a dominant pace, opening a threeminute lead by 40kms and arriving at T2 in 2-26.33.

Buckingham moved into sixth place on the first lap, maintaining a high tempo throughout the bike course behind two Belgian athletes, a Swiss man and Italian as he reached T2 in a time of 2-36.16.

The run course was also along the coast road, consisting of two loops (21kms – 13.1 miles, half marathon) between Amadores and Puerto Rico.

Buckingham set off at a blistering pace in pursuit of the race leaders.

He moved into fifth place in the first 2kms, then fourth by 5kms and third place by 10kms, recording the fastest split of 35.08.

He realised it would require a tremendous effort to catch the second athlete and decided to slow down as he is due to lead Great Britain at the European Duathlon