Great Britain’s Alistair Brownlee, a 20-year-old student at Leeds University, gave the world’s best triathletes a swim, a bike ride and a run for their money before finishing 12th in 30-degree temperatures at Ming Tombs reservoir earlier this morning.

However, at the front of the field a well-timed sprint from Jan Frodeno gave the German gold in a thrilling men’s triathlon race. He went clear with 50m to go to finish ahead of Canada’s Simon Whitfield and New Zealand’s Bevan Docherty, clocking one hour 48:53 seconds.

Alistair Brownlee, the second-youngest competitor in the 55-strong field, had been among the leading group for much of the run before fading to 12th place. Fellow Brit Will Clarke was two places behind Brownlee with Tim Don, suffering from a virus, failed to finish. Don, who had hoped to among the medals in Beijing, was struggling with illness in the build-up to the race and withdrew early.

Whitfield looked to have time his sprint finish to perfection, breaking from a group that included Frodeno, Docherty and pre-race favourite Javier Gomez of Spain. But Frodeno stuck with him and, with just 50m to the line, had the legs to out-sprint the Canadian to claim the gold.

It was a fitting end to a fantastic race in which Brit Brownlee more than played his part. The 20-year-old set the agenda on the 40km bike ride after a hugely impressive swim and looked in contention for a medal as he initially formed a six-man breakaway group in the 10km run.

But he just did not have the legs to keep up with the experienced Frodeno, Whitfield, Docherty, Gomez and Ivan Rana, falling off the pace with 7km to go, before crossing the line 86 seconds behind the winner.

Clarke was always playing catch-up after a disappointing 1.5km swim in a race which was competed in blistering heat.

You can watch highlights of the the men’s race here.

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Emma Snowsill claimed triathlon gold for Australia as she stormed to victory in Beijing earlier this morning. I managed the early 3am start to watch the event live on TV and what a spectacle it was. The quality in the field of athletes was just outstanding and along with the beautiful scenery surrounding the Ming Tomb Reservoir, the race was just magnificent.

The Commonwealth Games champion, 27, broke clear at the start of the 10k run and never looked like being caught as she won in one hour and 58.27 seconds.

Portugal’s Vanessa Fernandes won silver and Australian Emma Moffatt the bronze.

British world champion Helen Tucker came 21st while Hollie Avil, who has been struggling with a stomach bug, withdrew during the 40k bike ride.

Tucker had been in contention at the changeover from bike to run, having been in the lead group for much of the race. But Snowsill stormed clear and another breakaway group formed and Tucker struggled to match the pace. Tucker was hoping to add an Olympic medal to her World Championship win earlier this year.

The Welsh triathlete finished more than four minutes behind Snowsill but Avil, the 18-year-old national champion, could not cope with the punishing pace.

Shortly after Avil retired an eight-bike pile-up at the end of lap five dashed the hopes of Canada’s Laura Groves and Russian Irina Abysova as riders careered over the barrier and into each other at the hairpin stadium turn.

For Snowsill her victory made up for the pain of missing out on selection for the team to compete at the last Olympics in Athens four years ago.

You can watch highlights of the the women’s race here. Roll on the men’s race tomorrow morning!!

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With all 110 athletes confirmed for Beijing, the ITU has announced the start numbers and transition area positions for the triathlon at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The draw took place in Kitzbühel, Austria, site of the final world cup before the Beijing Olympics. It was conducted by Olympic Technical Delegates Gergely Markus and Enrique Quesada and Beijing race referee Thanos Nikopoulos.

All countries were in sealed envelopes and randomly drawn one by one. The draw determined the allocation of the race numbers and the position of the athletes in transition. As each nation was drawn, the numbers were assigned to all athletes from that nation. The athletes from the same nation will be next to each other in the transition area.

The process was separate for both the women’s and men’s fields. The number 13 was not assigned so number 56 is the final start number.

In the women’s draw, Italy was the first country pulled which means Charlotte Bonin will wear the number one start number. Germany was pulled second, followed by Switzerland. Defending Olympic gold medalist Kate Allen will wear #11 as Austria was the fifth country pulled. New Zealand’s was the tenth country drawn as Andrea Hewitt, Debbie Tanner and Sam Warriner will wear numbers 25, 26, and 27 respectively. The reigning world champion going into Beijing Helen Tucker will suit up with number 31 as Great Britain was the 13th country drawn. Immediately after Australia was pulled, meaning Erin Densham, Emma Moffatt and Emma Snowsill will wear numbers 32, 33, and 34 respectively. The Americans Laura Bennett, Julie Ertel and Sarah Haskins will occupy numbers 40, 41, and 42. Portugal was among the final countries drawn so Vanessa Fernandes will wear number 54.

Click here for the final women’s Olympic start list

For the men, South Africa was drawn first, which gives Hendrik De Villiers the number one start number. Then the Netherlands’ Sander Berk will wear number two as the second country drawn. Great Britain’s Alistair Brownlee wears number 36, with Will Clarke number 36 and Tim Don number 37. Australia was the eighth country pulled meaning Courtney Atkinson and Brad Kahlefeldt will wear numbers 11 and 12 respectively. The Aussie pair will be close to the Canadian team that was drawn next with 2000 Olympic gold medalist Simon Whitfield assigned number 16. The U.S. was the 13th country randomly selected as the country’s representatives in Beijing, Hunter Kemper, Matt Reed and Jarrod Shoemaker will occupy numbers 21 to 23. New Zealand was the 15th country drawn as Bevan Docherty, Kris Gemmell and Shane Reed will wear numbers 27, 28 and 29 respectively. Newly crowned world champion Javier Gomez will suit up in his first Olympics wearing number 30. A trio of big countries followed after Spain, including Germany & France.

Click here for the final men’s Olympic start list.

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Just one month to go until the 2008 Olympic Games opens in Beijing. The greatest prize in sports awaits two triathletes in Beijing this summer. Olympic gold will be up for grabs for the third time in triathlon’s history on August 18th and 19th on a challenging Olympic course. The women’s triathlon will be contested on August 18th while the men’s triathlon will be staged on August 19th.

The Ming Tomb Reservoir, also known as Shisanling Reservoir and the roads around have been designated as the competition venue for the Triathlon, which are located in the Changping District of Beijing. The swim leg will be held in the Shisanling Reservoir which is in the the Jiu Long Amusement Park.

The Transition Area is set on a purposely built platform at the base of the dam. The platform will also hold the Cycling and Run legs both of which lap through this point before continuing behind the dam. A large Spectator stand, to hold 10,000, is set on the slope of the dam above the Platform to give views of the Swim, Transition, Lap and Finish.

A 360 view of the dam area of the course is available on the BOCOG website.

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