Matt Hauser has won Australia's first medal of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and given his sport a sorely-needed boost with bronze in the triathlon.
The 24-year-old Queenslander just failed to run down New Zealander Hayden Wilde at the finish as England's Alex Yee won the gold medal.
The women's race was a procession for Bermuda great Flora Duffy, who won her second-straight Commonwealth gold medal a year after dominating the Olympics race as well.
Australian newcomer Sophie Linn ran through the field for an impressive fifth place.
Wilde, the world No.1, had to serve a 10-second penalty immediately before the finish for undoing his helmet a split-second too early as he racked his bike in the cycle-run transition.
But he had enough time up his sleeve to hold off Hauser.
Wilde is protesting the penalty and hopes there will be dual gold medals for Yee and him, but a verdict could take up to 30 days.
"My coach was yelling out, 'Hayden has got a penalty' and I was like, 'I'm just trying to hang on to third here mate, crikey'," said Hauser.
"I could see him waiting (in the penalty area) and I did all I can, I emptied the tank that's for sure.
"It is a great honour to kick the Games off for Australia and let's hope we can keep going through strong."
Yee won the 750m swim, 20km cycle and 5km run triathlon at Sutton Park, north of Birmingham, in 50 minutes 34 seconds.
Wilde was 13 seconds off the pace and Hauser was a further three seconds back, while Australian Gold Coast silver medallist Jake Birtwhistle was 32 seconds behind Yee in fourth.
Yee called Wilde's penalty "rubbish" and the New Zealander tapped him on the shoulder when he was passed late in the run.
Wilde found out about his penalty midway through the run and the NZ argument is that he would have raced differently without it.
NZ officials also argue Wilde did nothing wrong at the bike-run transition.
"I don't want to take away that medal - he absolutely deserves it," Wilde said.
"It's happened before, that there's been a double gold medal, so we'll see."
It was Hauser's second Commonwealth Games medal, after he won gold as a member of the mixed triathlon relay team at the Gold Coast Games and was fourth in the individual race.
Hauser's medal also marks a timely boost for the sport after the disaster of the Tokyo Olympics last year, where Australia were uncompetitive.
Yee won silver and Wilde took bronze in Tokyo, but Birtwhistle was 16th and Hauser finished 24th.
"It's one occasion that I'm happy to book some extra luggage on the way home - it's a great confidence booster," Hauser said of his medal.
In his Games debut, Australian Brandon Copeland finished 22nd at 3:46.
Duffy won by 41 seconds, crossing the line in 55 minutes 25 seconds, well clear of Georgia Taylor-Brown of England, while Scot Beth Potter took third.
Linn outsprinted Welsh star Non Stanford to take fifth, 1:43 behind Duffy.
