Jake Birtwhistle has hurdled his way to a silver medal in a dramatic finish at the World Triathlon Series round in Edmonton where the Australian miscalculated the number of run laps.
In an extraordinary turn of events, Birtwhistle charged down the finish chute believing he was about to win his first WTS race - only to realise he'd completed just two of the scheduled three laps of the five kilometre Sprint Distance course after the 750m swim and 20km bike.
Halfway down the blue carpet chute and realising his mistake, the long-legged former under-23 world champion, who two weeks ago anchored Australia to the World Teams title, hurdled the barriers and kept running.
The 22-year-old Commonwealth Games hope from Tasmania was eventually caught by two-time and defending WTS champion, Spain's Mario Mola, who bolted away to win his fourth race of the season.
Despite his legs burning, Birtwhistle dug deep to produce an incredible final 1.5km lap to keep bronze medallist South African Richard Murray at bay and claim silver.
In what was an all-star field, two time Olympic medallist Johnny Brownlee was fourth and five-time ITU world champion Javier Gomez (Spain) fifth.
