Bronze for NZ

COOL, CLEAR, WATER: Gisborne’s Tayler Reid, representing New Zealand, takes water during the run portion of the men’s individual triathlon at the Olympics in Tokyo today. He finished 18th after helping set the pace during the bike stage and being in the leading group for much of the race. AP pictures

Tayler Reid has finished 18th in the men's individual triathlon after an astonishing swim and bike legs for the Gisborne-born athlete.

Reid was in the leading group for large portions of the early race but could not keep up with New Zealand's best triathlete, Hayden Wilde, who won the bronze medal after an outstanding run.

After a false start tired the arms of half the field, including Wilde and pre-race favourite Spain's Mario Mola, the door was left open for Reid to capitalise early.

Reid helped set the pace through the first two legs, giving Wilde a great chance to medal by setting the stage for a running race, with a large peloton coming into the final transition.

It was a punishing race, with temperatures already exceeding 26 degrees before the 6.30am start and 30 degrees by the race's finish.

After a strong swim, Reid's favourite discipline, he was part of the nine-man lead group on the bike.

Reid was in first position at several stages of the bike leg as the lead pack shared the duties of creating a slip-stream in the draft-legal race.

He and his colleagues were pulled in halfway through the bike leg, with the leaders easing off trying to build a lead.

With the two groups bunched, the race pace started to slow with the big peloton saving their legs for a 10-kilometre foot race to decide the medals.

It was speculated before the race that Reid's role might be to act as a domestique for Wilde, someone who sacrifices their own race to pace the better athlete through the swim and bike.

Wilde was in with a good chance of taking the glory entering the run as both New Zealand's 5000-metre and cross-country champion.

Reid came into the run in third place, but he was unable to keep pace with the running specialists.

By halfway through the run, Reid had started to fade. He was 36 seconds off the pace, but his early work had set up a great race for teammate Wilde, who looked comfortable in the lead pack that had started to break away from the rest of the field.

As the race entered the final lap of the 2.5km running course, the lead pack quickly thinned as athletes started to fall off the pace of the front-runners.

With less than a kilometre to go, Wilde was still in the hunt, just behind Norway's Kristian Blummenfelt and Great Britain's Alex Yee, but he was unable to shake up the final positions with the trio having to dig deep in their reserves to cross the line.

Wilde finished third, 20 seconds behind gold medallist Blummenfelt, with Reid finishing a minute and a half later in 18th place.

It was a great race for Reid, who would have relished leading an Olympic event, having been selected primarily for his abilities in the teams relay, scheduled for 10.30am on Saturday (NZT).