GB gold medal hope Alistair Brownlee suffers Achilles injury

Olympic triathlon hopeful Alistair Brownlee has been dealt a setback in his preparations for London 2012 by suffering an Achilles injury.

The 23-year-old, the reigning triathlon world champion and one of Britain's best hopes for Olympic gold his summer, has a small tear in his left Achilles tendon.

But British Triathlon's Olympic Performance Group manager Malcolm Brown revealed he was not too concerned by the injury at his stage.

"Alistair has a small tear in his left Achilles tendon and is wearing an air cast as a precaution," Brown, also one of Brownlee's personal coaches, said.

"Obviously this isn't an ideal situation, but I can say that this has been his best winter's training, probably ever.

"We had scheduled a break from training at the end of the winter period anyway, so I am not overly concerned at this stage.

"He is swimming every day, and will train on a static bike today.

"He has been doing some light running, but now that he's wearing the cast, we will allow the Achilles to repair before resuming light running again, hopefully within the next ten days.

"Alistair's first planned major race is the ITU World Triathlon San Diego in mid-May. We had never intended that he would race the World Triathlon Series event in Sydney in April, so he still has three months to prepare for that."

PA