Good old Keano: Keane in the centre looking delighted after his race in Japan. On the right is his coach and former top cyclist Tommy Evans. Far right is Ireland's top female triathlete Aileen Morrison. This picture comes at the end of a career of hard work and it's great to see it.
One of Ireland’s hardest working athletes, top international triathlete Bryan Keane, is on his way to the Rio Olympics have secured his place racing in Japan in the early hours of this morning.
The Cork man was scuppered four years ago when he was sidelined with injury as a place at the London Games was up for grabs.
But he has laid those ghosts to rest this morning, securing his place for Rio after the battle for the final few slots came down to the very last race in a two-year qualification process.
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Keane, a former international runner who also represented Ireland a number of times during a brief period as a full time cyclist, had been coached on the elite by elite triathlon coach Tommy Evans.
Like Keane, Evans will be very well known to many in the cycling world, having been one of our best amateurs through the 1999s and into the 2000s. Evans is a former Rás winner.
Keane went into the ITU World Series race in Yokohama this morning sitting 53rd in the rankings for the last two years, just two places inside the top 55 cut off point for Olympic qualification.
He has been battling for many months with a group of other triathletes all scrapping for those last few places.
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And this morning he need to finish ahead of a handful of his rivals, who really needed to both beat the Irishman and finish well ahead of him to leapfrog him on points.
Keane put in a great bike to pull back about 15 places from his finishing position in the swim.
And then he went and put in a very good run, holding firm mentally and physically under extreme pressure to finish in 20th place.
He came home in a time of 1hr 47mins 58secs, just 1:31 down on Mario Mola of Spain.
And that was enough to secure him a place on the place for the Rio Olympics; a fantastic reward for many years of hard effort.
"I just have to go out and do it, get the best result possible," said Keane before the race.
He knew he was in a fight even though he had been 13th in Japan before and had the slight upper hand going into this morning’s race ahead of his rivals for Rio.
He added before the race: "It's really close and tight, it's coming right down to the wire so I have to perform, if I don't I am not in.
“There's been pressure before and the guys that I am up against are under pressure too. I have beaten them before so I just need to focus on my own race and my own performance, you can't really be looking around."
