Sportsvibe.co.uk

Britain's Alistair Brownlee won the Olympic triathlon with his younger brother Jonny taking the bronze this afternoon, as Great Britain claimed their 19^th gold medal of the London games.

The elder Brownlee, injured for the first half of the year, went away on the 10km run and crossed the line with a union jack draped over his shoulders to delight a massive Hyde Park crowd.

The younger Brownlee had incurred a 15-second penalty for mounting his bike too early in transition one and had to take it at the end of the penultimate run lap. This ended his hopes of a silver medal, just behind his older brother, but he dug deep over the last 2.5km to hang on for third. Both Brownlees came out of the 1500m Serpentine swim in a lead group of five that also included eventual silver medallist Javier Gomez, with third Briton Stuart Hayes just a few seconds back. The British brothers maintained their pace to send the home crowd into raptures.

Alistair had been dominating the triathlete circuit over the last three years, but has had his fair share of injury problems accumulating in a torn Achilles in January. He only returned to World Series racing in Kitzbuehel last month but managed to overcome 2010 world champion Gomez in convincing, yet surprising fashion.

Four years ago in Beijing he had led for three laps of the run before finishing down in 12^th, but that experience as a 20-year-old has paid off.

"The race was unbelievable and the crowds were amazing," Alistair told BBC Sport. "My ears are still ringing from all that noise.

"The pressure was stacked up and so many things put to bed today.

"It feels a bit underwhelming because Jonny has collapsed, but, no, it is fantastic. I am massively proud of Jonny."

The eldest of the Brownlee brothers 10km run split of 29 minutes and seven seconds was only just over a minute and a half slower than Mo Farah's gold medal-winning time in the track 10,000m last Saturday, and only a second off the second-placed Briton in that final, Chris Thompson, showing just how breathtaking this amazing victory was.