Penryn College teacher Mark Lewarne suffered a heavy crash on the bike section during while competing in the European triathlon championships in Portugal on Saturday.

Despite the nasty incident, the Team GB competitor remained undeterred and continued to finish in the top half of athletes just outside the top 20.

He told Packet Sport: "I took a heavy fall at a roundabout and went flying, I lost at least 2 minutes of time and dropped about 10 positions because of it, not only this I lost a bit of confidence and had to be treated by the medical team at the course.

"The road surface was a little greasy following some light drizzle in the morning and I just didn't have enough time to react to the turn."

Despite the heavy fall on the Tarmac in the capital Lisbon, Lewarne still battled to a strong finish and just missed the top 16 by around 30 seconds.

"I had a strong swim and was out the water in 4th place just behind the leader and contending for a podium position then the crash on the bike, but I still managed to run a strong 17 minute for 5km.

He added: "I left myself a lot to do after losing time on the bike but onwards and upwards and it will have to keep positive ahead of the next round of European competition in Hungary, in July.

Lewarne is now considering racing in Budapest again following his fifth last year, and he is not ruling out a return to Dubai and Abu Dhabi next year on the YAS marina circuit, where he was crowned champion in 2013.

Mark thanked his sponsors Maen Karne Aggregates and all the staff and students at Penryn College for their support leading up to the race.

The race in Lisbon was Lewarne's 18th cap at international level for his country.