Brownlee brothers help England to silver in Commonwealth triathlon relay as Australia win

England's Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, Jess Learmonth and Vicky Holland had to settle for silver as Australia took gold in the triathlon mixed team relay at the Commonwealth Games.

The two teams broke clear early on, before the reigning world champions took a decisive lead on leg three.

Olympic champion Alistair gave chase but was unable to catch individual silver medallist Jacob Birtwhistle.

Earlier, Joe Townsend and Jade Jones won gold in the Para-triathlon events.

In the mixed relay event, two women and two men from each nation complete a 300m swim, 7.5km cycle and 1.5km run before handing over to a team-mate.

The Brownlee brothers, having both failed to win a medal in the individual event on day one, had hopes of replicating England's Commonwealth gold in the event at Glasgow 2014.

Vicky Holland and Jonny Brownlee kept pace with the host nation's Gillian Backhouse and Matt Hauser, leaving the rest of the field to contend for bronze.

However, the host's Ashleigh Gentle, part of the team that won the 2017 World Championship, left individual Commonwealth silver medal winner Jess Learmonth behind with a strong run.

It proved too big a gap for Jonny's older brother Alistair, 29, to bridge. He eventually came home 52 seconds behind Birtwhistle.

After the race Alistair said: "I thought even if I got it together it would be close. We talked through every combination last night, and we knew it would be with Australia but we didn't pick this. Jess had a fantastic race and that was amazing. I was a little disappointed but it was still a good race.

"We'll keep progressing and preparing for the Olympics."

New Zealand completed the podium, with Wales and Scotland finishing sixth and seventh respectively.

Three of the new Commonwealth champions - Jacob Birtwhistle, Ashleigh Gentle and Matt Hauser - were part of Australia's World Championship winning team