Andrew Hood goes through pain barrier at Youth Olympics

The 18-year-old from Cupar came home 15th at East Coast Park yesterday but slumped to the ground after crossing the finish line and had to be helped away in clear distress and unsteady on his feet. Hood happily made a full recovery after returning to the athletes' village, and had no regrets about giving every ounce of energy.

"I gave it absolutely everything to keep my top-15 spot and, in doing so, absolutely broke myself," said Hood "But if I had not given everything and finished 16th, I would've hated myself so the pain at the end was totally worth it. In the final 2km (of the run] I had to dig really deep to to maintain a top-15 place, which was my aim at the start of the race."

Lying 18th and in the second group after the 750metre swim, Hood improved over both the 20 kilometre cycle and 5km run, climbing to 16th and then 15th in clocking a time of 57 minutes 17.54seconds.

However, he still came home over two and a half minutes behind surprise winner Aaron Barclay from New Zealand and Hood felt it was on the bike that his chance of perhaps a top-10 finish was lost. "I had a good start in the swim, I didn't get caught in any melees but faded a bit towards the end and came out in the second group," Hood added. "The bike is my favourite section but it was frustrating as nobody was willing to share the workload to catch the group in front so the gap of 90 seconds was too big to make up."

There was disappointment for Team GB in the pool as both Ellie Faulkner and Rachael Kelly came up short. Faulkner finished sixth in heat seven of the women's 100m freestyle at Singapore Sports School, her time of 58.71secs not good enough to progress to the semi-finals in her weakest event. China's Tang Yi took the heat in 57.22s.