Glasgow 2014: Cheat sheet for Commonwealth triathlon

The sport in brief

Swim, bike, run - in that order. A race combining a 1500m open water swim, a 40km bike ride and a 10km run. There is also a mixed team relay featuring two women and two men over shorter distances (250m swim, 6km cycle, 1600m run). Athletes complete all three disciplines in their mini-triathlon before tagging their team-mate. The order is woman, man, woman, man.

Home Nations' prospects

England's Brownlee brothers. Alistair won Olympic gold at London 2012 with younger sibling Jonny taking bronze. Neither started this season well, but Alistair was crowned European champion in June, and won the World Triathlon Series race in Hamburg in fine style on 12 July.

Wales fancied a one-two before former individual world champions Non Stanford, and most recently Helen Jenkins, pulled out with injury. In their absence, England's Jodie Stimpson will be among the favourites having finished second to Stanford in last year's World Championships.

Commonwealth class acts

South Africa's Richard Murray has two podium finishes in the 2014 World Triathlon Series (WTS) - he'll push the Brownlees close.

Australia's Emma Jackson is the form lady; she's fourth in the overall WTS rankings having finished on the podium in the last two rounds. Compatriot Emma Moffatt is a two-time world champion and Olympic bronze medallist, but is something of an injury doubt.

What's new for Glasgow 2014?

The mixed team relay, in which Great Britain won World Championship gold recently. There was no triathlon at the 2010 Commonwealth Games but the team relay has been added to the schedule for the first time.

Pub bore

Crawling during the run section can result in a time penalty perhaps in part due to the 1997 Ironman World Championship, which featured a crawl for the line between Sian Welch and Wendy Ingraham.

Best medal results by the Home Nations

England: No medal (two fourth places - Simon Lessing (2002) and Tim Don (2006), both men's individual)

Northern Ireland: No medal (15th, Gavin Noble, men's individual, 2006)

Scotland: No medal (12th, Rich Allen, men's individual, 2002)

Wales: One silver (Leanda Cave, women's individual, 2002)