Bryan Keane puts on valiant display

Bryan Keane realised a childhood dream yesterday by competing in his first Olympic Games at the age of 35 but it wasn’t the performance or result he’d have been hoping for.

The Corkman, who turns 36 tomorrow, was the oldest athlete in the 56-strong field and he finished 40th, just over seven minutes down on winner Alistair Brownlee who led home brother Jonathan for a Team GB 1-2.

Keane, the sole Irishman in the race, battled back from career-threatening injuries that threatened to derail his career but he came into the race quietly confident of delivering a big performance.

But it was clear from the blistering early pace set by Richard Varga Keane would struggle and exiting the water after the 1.5-kilometre swim on Copacobana Beach he was 38th, albeit a respectable one minute behind the Slovakian.

Stalking Varga were defending champion Alistair Brownlee while shadowing him all afternoon in the baking heat was Jonathan, a bronze medallist from London four years ago.

A lead group of 10 surged clear on the bike leg while behind, Keane and a large group battled to stay in touch.

Varga knew he needed to be further ahead entering the bike leg which is where the Brownlee brothers often do most damage. By the halfway mark on the 40k bike leg, the chase group – including Keane were 1’13” adrift and out of contention.

From that point on it was a game of catch-up – or damage limitation, but with the bike being his strongest discipline Keane set about chipping into the deficit that crept over the two-minute mark by the second of eight laps.

He was 44th exiting T1 but managed to climb to 40th and hopes of beating Gavin Noble’s 23rd from four years ago were now more of a reality.

The lead group worked very well to force the pace but one sensed the Brownlees were just waiting for the foot race to press home their advantage.

Spain’s Mario Mola and the South African pair of Henri Schoeman and Richard Murray kept the brothers honest but when Mola dropped off the back the medal contenders thinned out. And it was during the run where the Brownlees really found another gear, distancing Schoeman over the first five kilometres.

Behind, Keane dropped back to 45th after a sluggish transition and he found himself with a five-minute deficit with the 10 kilometres dash along the Copacabana seafront to go.

Credit to him, he made up considerable ground, clocking a very lively opening lap (7’42”) and three more very quick split lap times.

He was 18th fastest on the course and that improved his position to 40th but by the time he crossed the line the two brothers – gold and silver, were already in celebratory mode, crossing the line in 1:45:01 and 1:45:07, respectively.

Schoeman hung on for bronze in a time of 1:45:43, seven seconds quicker than his countryman Murray in fourth.

Keane’s time of 1:52:09 is one he can be enormously proud of and is the culmination of eight years of hard work – and much of that on the rehab table as he spent the best part of 2011 in a leg brace to correct the shattered kneecap he sustained in a training accident a year earlier.

Aileen Reid will take part in the women’s race tomorrow.