Bryan Keane has finished 40th for Ireland in the Olympic men’s triathlon on Copacabana beach and Fort Copacabana writes Will Downing.

The Irish triathlete fought to get up into the mix, but was lying 38th after the 1.5km swim, 52 seconds down on leader Richard Varga of Slovakia, who was marginally ahead of the British Brownlee brothers, the Russian Polyanskiy brothers, and South Africa’s Henri Schoeman.

But the end of Transition 1, Keane had fallen to 47th as the race entered its second phase, on bikes.

Keane was 43rd fastest on two wheels in the 43km cycle, with Schoeman being four-and-a-half minutes faster in the cycling than the Corkman, who was 45th going into the final 10km run.

It was tight between the top ten heading into the foot race, with Varga, Jonathan Brownlee and Vincent Luis of France being given the same time a second ahead of defending champion Alistair Brownlee.

The race for gold ended in a similar fashion to the previous Olympics at London 2012, with both Brownlee brothers in the mix, but this time, gold and silver was kept within the family.

Alistair came through the sands of Copacabana to win in 1 hour 45 minutes 1 second, six seconds clear of brother Jonathan – bronze-medallist in London – in second, with third going to Schoeman a further 36 seconds down.

Keane crossed the line in 40th position, seven minutes and eight seconds behind the winning Brownlee.

It’s the culmination of an eight-year dream for Keane to compete, and finish highly, at the Olympic Games.

Family and friends watched on a big screen at a specially organised Olympic party in Cork, and cheered him over the line.