Kristian Blummenfelt of Norway celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the gold medal during the men's individual triathlon at the 2020 Summer Olympics, on July 26, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Norway's Kristian Blummenfelt produced a decisive breakaway on the run leg to win men's Olympic triathlon gold in Tokyo early Monday morning, negotiating approximately 27 C air and 30 C water temperature to take the Scandinavian country's first medal of the games.

       Blummenfelt broke his nearest rivals, Alex Yee of Great Britain and Hayden Wilde of New Zealand, with around 1 kilometer of the 10 km run leg to go, taking victory in 1 hour, 45 minutes, 4 seconds in a race that started at 6:30 a.m. to avoid the worst of the heat.

       It was Norway's first medal in triathlon at an Olympic Games.

       "I don't really have the leg speed if it came down to the blue carpet (finish area) with Alex and Hayden," he said.

       "So, I knew that I had to drag it five minutes away from the finish line, go really, really hard for five or six minutes, all-out, and hopefully that would be enough to break them," explained Blummenfelt, who also said he prepared for the heat at a training camp in Miyazaki.

       Yee won silver in a time of 1:45:15 and Wilde took the bronze nine seconds behind. For host Japan, Kenji Nener battled leg cramps to take 14th and Makoto Odakura crossed 19th of 49 competitors who finished.

       Nener, who was born to an Australian father and a Japanese mother, previously represented Australia, but in 2018 he completed the move to represent Japan and was granted Japanese citizenship in April this year.

       Odakura became the leading candidate for the Olympic team with his 16th place finish at the World Triathlon Championship Series race in Yokohama in May.

       "I put everything I had out there. A part of me is disappointed, but I wasn't able to complete the race in the test event so I'm proud of myself for not giving up and going the distance," Odakura said.

       The event was raced over a two-lap 1.5 km swim at Odaiba Marine Park, eight-lap 40 km bike leg and four-lap 10 km run.

       The women's race is next up, starting at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. The newly introduced mixed relay format takes place on Saturday.

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