Niall Caley and Will Draper claimed top-25 finishes in the men’s sprint triathlon on the opening day of action at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

The event took place in Sutton Park on the outskirts of the city, with the athletes tackling a 750-metre open-water swim, a 20-kilometre cycle and a 5km run.

England’s Alex Yee added to his Olympic silver medal by clinching gold ahead of New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde and Australia’s Matthew Hauser.

Caley completed the three disciplines in a combined time of 54 minutes exactly to finish a fine 20th place, while Draper was not far behind in 55.57 in 24th place.

Afterwards, a delighted Caley commented: ‘I am absolutely ecstatic. I exceeded everything that I thought I’d do and left everything out on the course.

‘I don’t think it could have gone any better, other than a few little mistakes in transition one but that happens in racing.

‘It was just about keeping comfortable. Fast, short, sharp racing like this, you’ve got to learn where to work and where not to work.

‘There’s times on the bike where you’ve got to understand that you can’t sprint out of every corner expecting the pack to move with you, so it’s taking every wave as it comes in the race and just relaxing.’

Niall also gave a special mention to the Manx supporters throughout: ‘It was amazing, the Manx support from the people around the course was phenomenal - you had people all around the entire run course shouting your name as you came round which gave me a little bit of energy to push on.’