Triathlon-Brave Blummenfelt wins gold for Norway

INA - Sources

Norway's Kristian Blummenfelt backed his endurance to take the sting out of two young hotshot rivals as he delivered a devastating late surge to break clear on a sweltering run leg and take gold in a thrilling men's Olympic triathlon on Monday.

Blummenfelt was part of a huge group of almost 40 that came off the 40km bike leg together but looked anything but favourite among some young speedsters.

However, he dug deep to keep driving at the front as the group was whittled down to three, before surging clear in the final kilometre to finish in one hour, 45 minutes and 04 seconds to take Norway's first medal in the sport.

Alex Yee's silver made Britain the most successful nation in the Olympic triathlon, which joined the programme in 2000.

Fellow 23-year-old Hayden Wilde of New Zealand also ran strongly to take bronze, while Briton Jonny Brownlee, who won silver in 2016 and bronze in 2012 and was hoping to complete the set in the absence his double champion brother Alistair, could not quite hang on and finished fifth.

Blummenfelt said he knew he had to "break" his speedier rivals to win gold.

"I don't really have the leg speed if it came down the carpet against these guys, so I knew I had to drag it out from about five minutes away and go really, really hard and all out and hopefully it would be enough to break them," he said.

"It was a great feeling to realize I'd got a little gap."