NEWCASTLE triathlete Aaron Royle says "I wish I could have done more, but I did the best I could" following the men's race at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday.
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National teammates Jake Birtwhistle, who suffered a broken nose during the event, and Matt Hauser were 16th and 24th respectively.
"Yeah, we had had a plan to try and have a good race as a team," Royle told AOC media.
"And to be honest, I wish I could have done more but I did the best I could. I was able to contribute a few times to try and get our group up to that lead group on the bike.
"Once we're there it was almost survival mode and then come the run, it's all I had and it wasn't enough today."
Royle, who came ninth on debut in Rio five years ago, stopped the clock at one hour, 47 minutes and 57 seconds after the 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run.
He was 2:53 behind gold medalist Kristian Blummenfelt of Norway.
Royle, who climbed as high as second midway through the second leg, also commented on a comical false start.
"I just had to laugh myself as we swam back to the pontoon, thinking that of all the races for that to happen in it had to be the Olympics," he said.
Australia's mixed relay team, two men and two women, has yet to be named ahead of Saturday's race.
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Josh Callinan
My name is Josh Callinan and I'm a sports journalist at the Newcastle Herald. I started with the newspaper in 2016 after a decade at the Maitland Mercury.
My name is Josh Callinan and I'm a sports journalist at the Newcastle Herald. I started with the newspaper in 2016 after a decade at the Maitland Mercury.
