Youth Games: Second medal for New Zealand

The New Zealand team have won their second medal of the Youth Olympic Games, combining with Australia to bag a silver medal in the teams triathlon race at Singapore today.

The New Zealanders and Australians formed a potent Oceania team, which came from nearly a minute behind to claim the silver medal behind Europe, after leaders Americas 1 were served a penalty with the finishing line in sight.

The race involved teams of four - two male and two female - with each completing a super-sprint format of a 250m swim, 6.6km bike ride and 1.7km run.

It marked an outstanding few days for 18-year-old Southlander Aaron Barclay, who won the individual triathlon gold on Monday.

"I put just as much into that as my individual race. I tried to have a good crack at him with 500m to go on the run but he (Alois Knabl) had more in the tank but I am extremely happy to get the silver," Barclay said.

Barclay and Europe's Knabl began the final bike leg 15 seconds behind Americas 1 but Argentina's Lautaro Diaz managed to extend the advantage to 24 seconds going on to the final run before a 15 second penalty proved costly.

"About halfway on the bike we just about caught the guy out in the front but I was hurting really bad. We were time trialling our guts out and we couldn't quite catch him," Barclay said.

"I thought we were fighting for silver and bronze until someone round the back of the course yelled that this is the gold position here. As soon I heard that I had a real crack but I was already on the red line. I put the lock right round and tried my best but second was it and I am very happy with that."

Earlier fellow team-mate, Auckland's Maddie Dillon, 16, had produced a huge effort on the bike to pull back a 54 second deficit to just 10 seconds and while she lost a few seconds on the run, she handed over to Barclay just 19 seconds behind the leader.

"That was pretty hard, very fast and very hard. It ended up like a non-drafting race which suits me. The deficit made it better for me because it gave me something to chase. That was awesome to get a silver medal, just fantastic."

Asia made the early pace on the first women's leg before both Americans teams took over in the second leg, opening a solid break with Oceania back by 55 seconds before Dillon brought them back into the race.

Provisional results: Europe 1 1:19.51, 1; Oceania (Ellie Salthouse, Michael Gosman, Maddie Dillon, Aaron Barclay) 1:19.55, 2; Americas 1 1:19.58, 3.

- NZPA