Fanous finishes 46th in Rio triathlon

AMMAN — Jordan triathlete Lawrence Fanous didn’t quite make it into the top 30 as he targeted, but nevertheless made history on Thursday by becoming the first Jordanian to compete at an Olympic triathlon, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

The 30-year-old finished the gruelling race in a time of 1:55.05 for 46th place, just over 10 minutes behind Team GB gold medallist Alistair Brownlee.

“Hopefully this is the start of something big for triathlon in Jordan,” said Fanous. “I am the first, but by competing I hope this has opened the door for more Jordanian triathletes to compete at the Olympics in the future.”

Fanous was 41st coming out of the swim, but slipped back a few places after the bike to eventually finish the race 46th from 56 athletes after the run.