Following a difficult water start, Australia’s Michael Gosman has come from behind to produce a solid performance in the men’s individual triathlon, finishing in 12th place.

Losing his goggles in the dive into the East Coast Park waters, Gosman struggled to get a good position in the swim pack, putting him in 24th position leading into the cycle.

“It was a bit unlucky I guess,” Gosman said of the mishap. “It happens though. Swimming is always what I need to work on. I just couldn’t get up to that front pack today.”

A smooth transition had the 18-year-old athlete sitting in the second bike pack striving to gain on the leaders.

“We were working hard at the start of the bike to get up to that front group,” Gosman explained, “but there just weren’t enough people working so they got a pretty big gap and the run was hard.”

After a varied 10km cycle that saw blazing sun and the beginnings of a Singapore storm, Gosman had gained to 19th position, a minute and a half behind the leader as he headed into the run

“It was a bit on and off,” Gosman said of the conditions. “We were getting a bit of rain on the bike which was actually good but it was tough on that run, it’s very exposed.”

With the run being Gosman’s strongest leg, he pushed himself forward, cheered on my family, friends and silver medallist Ellie Salthouse in the crowd.

The young Canberran made huge gains in the run, despite the heat, and finished the race in 12th place with a total time of 57 minutes and 2.83 seconds.

“It’s been a big learning experience - this whole overseas trip, so I’m going to take a lot out of this race,” Gosman said.

The race belonged to New Zealand’s Aaron Barclay, taking gold in a time of 54:41.49 ahead of United States’ Kevin McDowell and Austria’s Alois Knabl.

Barclay came out firing from the beginning and did not let his stronghold on the race go, leading from the second bike lap to the finish line.

“I took a bit of a risk coming into transition and I thought I would see how they respond to it,” Barclay said. “They didn’t know me so they didn’t chase so I got a bit of a lead and just went from there.”

Despite a hard fought chase from American McDowell, Barclay held his lead and brought home New Zealand’s first Youth Olympic medal.

“I stuck on his tail and…I thought ’I’m in for a medal here’ but I didn’t get ahead of myself.”

Gosman, Salthouse and the other Youth Olympic triathletes will now have two days rest before competing in the mixed relay on Thursday 19 August.

Alice Wheeler
AOC