TRIATHLON: Bunbury triathlete Ryan Bailie shared in the jubilation of the Australians who competed on the first day of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with a fifth place finish in the men's triathlon.
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Forty-five competitors jumped in the water from the start line to complete the swimming leg of the event.
At the halfway point Bailie sat in eighth position and as the swimmers left the water having swum 1500 metres, Bailie had worked his way up to seventh.
Current Olympic champion and former European and World champion Alistair Brownlee from England led the group out onto the bike course with his brother Jonathon sitting in second.
Joined by Scotsman Marc Austin, the three slipped away after the first of five eight kilometre laps with Bailie and fellow Australians Aaron Royle and Daniel Wilson in the second group.
After an hour of racing over the steep cycling course, Bailie found himself sitting in 13th position, 1.03 behind the Brownlee brothers.
During the fourth lap of the cycling leg, arguably the best rider in the race Tom Davidson from New Zealand attempted to break away from the main group and Bailie was straight onto his back wheel.
The two of them kicked away and finished the fourth lap with Bailie in fifth overall, 57 seconds behind the leaders and five seconds clear of the main pack.
Davidson and Bailie were caught by the main pack during the fifth and final cycling lap as was Austin leaving a big group to compete for the bronze medal.
Bailie jumped off the bike and commenced the 10 kilometre run in ninth place, 1.09 behind the leaders.
At the halfway mark of the run, Bailie continued to push hard and sat in fifth, 1.44 behind leader Alistair Brownlee and 33 seconds behind South African Richard Murray who was running third.
Digging into his reserves of energy, Bailie kept his pace up all the way to the end, crossing the finishing line in fifth in a time of 1.50.43 – just 22 seconds behind the bronze medal.
Alistair Brownlee took out the race in a time of 1.48.50 while his brother Jonathon finished second and Murray took home the bronze medal.
The other Australian triathletes Aaron Royle and Dan Wilson finished eighth and ninth respectively.
Bailie now has a day to recover for the team event on Saturday.