Aileen Reid’s bid to become Ireland’s first ever European Games medallist has come unstuck in the searing heat of Azerbaijan as the top seed missed out on the medals in the women’s triathlon.
Reid was down in 13th place after the swim, thirty seconds down on the leaders, but it was the athlete immediately behind her after the first of the three disciplines that would eventually take gold at Bilgah Beach.
Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig rose from 14th to first after a blinding first lap of the cycling as she jousted with Swede Lisa Norden and Rachel Klamer of the Netherlands.
While Reid had risen to fifth – only 28 seconds behind the leading trio – by the end of the opening lap on the bike with 40km of cycling to complete, the Irish number one had fallen two minutes down within two more circuits, and from there was holding her own among the main chasers in sixth place.
Lying seventh at the second transition heading into the final run over 10km, Reid would overtake Russia’s Alexandra Razarenova in the closing straight to improve to sixth, but this would be exactly three-and-a-half minutes behind Olympic champion Spirig, who added European Games gold to her London 2012 title.
One minute and 16 seconds down on the Swiss winner, Klamer beat Norden in the sprint for silver.
Tomorrow, Aaron O’Brien and Russell White compete in the men’s triathlon at the same venue 30km north-east of Baku.
Other Sunday competitors will include Karen Dolphin in karate, Jenny Egan, Peter Egan and Simas Dobrovolskis in canoe sprint and the gymnastics team of Kieran Behan, Daniel Fox, Rohan Sebastian, Tara Donnelly, Nicole Mawhinney and Eilis O’Reilly.