Men's triathlon Olympic defending champion Alistair Brownlee has won gold at the 2016 Games in Rio, with his brother Jonathan Brownlee taking silver following a dominant performance from the two Team GB athletes.

Alistair, who has become the first man to win two triathlon golds at the Olympics, claimed gold at the 2012 Games in London, while Jonathan won bronze - finishing 30 seconds behind his brother and 11 seconds behind Spain's Javier Gomez on home soil.

Alistair has once again cemented his position at the top of the sport, but Jonathan has now gone one better than 2012, finishing ahead of South African Henri Schoeman, who claimed bronze with a brilliant run.

The event ended in disappointment for 2015 European Games champion Gordon Benson, however, as the Team GB triathlete was forced to withdraw after damaging his bike just past the hour mark.

As expected, it was the Slovakian Richard Varga that emerged from the water in the lead after setting a strong pace, but the Brownlee brothers were not too far behind as they prepared to take on the bike ride, which included eight steep climbs.

It did not take long for Alistair and Jonathan to take control on the bike, but Belgium's Marten van Riel and Australia's Aaron Royle were also going well as the time reached 35 minutes.

Much-fancied Mario Mola was part of the second group on the bike, with the Spaniard struggling in the water and also falling further behind during the second phase, while Benson was also well down the pack. Indeed, the front 10 continued to work together as the hour mark approached and among those were United States' Ben Kanute and the fancied Australian Aaron Royle.

Varga came through the second transition in the lead, quickly followed by the Brownlee brothers and France's Vincent Luis, who did excellently to recover from a tough period on the bike.

The Brownlee brothers were comfortable during the 10km run and stayed tight ahead of the chasing pack until just past the one hour and 30 minute mark, when Alistair turned on the afterburners and opened up a lead over his sibling, who just could not maintain the pace.

Walking over the line with his nation's flag, Alistair finished with a time of 1:45:01, while Jonathan was six seconds behind and Schoeman ultimately 18 seconds off the gold medal.