HUDDERSFIELD triathlete Mark Buckingham looks like heading to Brazil.

A member of the British Elite squad, he took gold in the standard-distance triathlon in Antalya, Turkey, and seems sure to be selected automatically for the Rio de Janeiro ITU World Olympic Qualification Event August 1 and 2.

The Turkish event featured a 750m sea swim with flat seafront bike and run courses contested by eight British men and five women, all battling for selection for Rio.

The British Elite athletes who have already won major international medals, namely Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, Non Stanford, Helen Jenkins, Jodie Stimpson and Vicky Holland, have already been pre-selected.

The Antalya race served as a trial for the remaining four men’s places, where the top two medal winners would be selected and the remaining two spots selected by a panel.

Adam Bowden was the highest ranked athlete, with Tom Bishop the next (after a super race in the Auckland World Series race) along with Gordon Benson, a recent winner of a European Cup race in Spain.

However, Buckingham has shown good early-season form with a solid performance in the opening World Series race in Abu Dhabi, winning the 10k race that served as the British Elite Duathlon Championships, and second place at the European Cup race in Quarteira, Portugal in March.

The men’s race in Turkey, as expected, was a closely fought battle.

Buckingham emerged from the swim in 22nd place out of 62, with a time of 18min 44sec, just 19 seconds behind the leader.

He worked hard on the 8-lap 40km bike course to move himself into contention with a time of 54.35, just six seconds behind the fastest time, which set him up perfectly for the final 4-lap 10km run.

He possibly went too hard at the start of the run course but still recorded the second fastest time of 30.15 and a total time of 1-44.20, to secure second place.

However, GB colleague Matt Sharp had run the fastest time of 30.04 but was promptly disqualified by the race officials as he had swum to the wrong side of a marker buoy, and therefore completed a shorter distance.

Buckingham was immediately elevated to gold, with Adam Bowden winning silver in 1-44.41 and Grant Sheldon of GB taking bronze in 1-44.56.

The Leeds-based Huddersfield man was pleased with his overall performance and he, together with Bowden, have met the criteria laid down by the British Triathlon Federation and should be automatically selected to join the Brownlee brothers at the Olympic Qualification Event in Rio.

His next race is scheduled to be the fifth round of the World Triathlon Series in Yokohama, Japan, next Saturday, May 16, where he will join GB teammates Alistair Brownlee, Bowden, Bishop and Benson.