Men's triathlete Alistair Brownlee has revealed that he 'woke up in pain every day' ahead of defending his Olympic gold medal at the 2016 Games on Thursday.
Alistair, who has become the first man to win two triathlon golds at the Olympics, finished six seconds ahead of his brother Jonathan Brownlee to defend the medal that he won in London 2012 and cement himself in the history books.
"Every day has been so hard. I have woken up in pain every day it has been so hard. The swim wasn't that quick but we knew the first two laps on the bike would be crucial. The last few weeks we have been training to commit and boy we did," Alistair told BBC Sport.
"As soon as we got to half way I knew we were going to get two medals and it was just a run for it. I was pretty confident we would get first and second but I didn't know which way round it would be. I just had the edge on Jonny but he has killed me in training every day and I have been going through hell every day."
"We have been pushing each other to the max. Jonny had the edge and I wasn't sure I would win, I knew had to go through hell and I did. I was delighted at the finish. On that run I got the gap and I was thinking it is good but kept trying to focus and when I got onto the blue carpet I was so happy."
Walking over the line with his nation's flag, Alistair finished with a time of 1:45:01, while Jonathan was six seconds behind and South African's Henri Schoeman was ultimately 18 seconds off the gold medal in third.
Matt Law
