![]() Yee said the false start may have been a factor, but he was not going to quibble now he had a silver medal around his neck. “When I was standing on the pontoon ready to go.” When Blummenfelt was asked when in the race he realised he was going to win gold, he smiled. Now he was battling for a medal, but when Blummenfelt made his move, Yee suddenly found that his legs were unable to answer. Nine years ago, he had watched the Brownlee brothers duelling at London 2012. “I said, ‘guys, we have a medal now, keep the gas on’.” “When he picked up the pace on the run, we went down from 10 to four and I tried to get him motivated to keep the pace,” he said. He soon sped to the front and then pushed hard as a group of 11 was slowly whittled down to four going into the last lap.Īt this point Blummenfelt decided to have a word with Yee to get him to go even faster. The question was, how much did Yee – the fastest runner in the field, having represented Britain over 10,000m at the European Athletics Championships – have left? Quite a lot, it transpired. The epic shift he put in while heading a chasing group through the twisting and highly technical bike course allowed him to catch up and be in prime position for the run. Yee had come out of the water in 32nd place, 30 seconds off the main group, which included Blummenfelt and Brownlee. “People are going to have to keep working out how to beat him because if they are not careful he’s going to win lots and lots of races.” Alex has got the ability now to dominate this sport. “He’s a great runner, he’s got a great head on him and knows how to race. Generous as ever, Brownlee said it was now time to pass the baton to a younger man. The Yorkshireman, who had won bronze in London 2012 and silver in Rio 2016, had thrown body and soul into going for gold but found it was only good enough for fifth. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/APĪs Yee spoke, his compatriot Jonny Brownlee was recovering after being in a bad way at the finish. What has changed is that his swim and bike are rapidly approaching world class too.Īlex Yee leads the way during the cycling phase of the race. Yee has always been a prodigious running talent – faster at 10,000m as a teenager than Mo Farah. “He was the better man on the day but I was as well prepared as I could be.” “I’m just a normal guy from south-east London. Such were his exertions he had to be carted off in a wheelchair.Įleven seconds back was Yee, punching the air after a performance of immense grit and drive, with New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde third. But, after so much toil and torture in the 27C heat, he had nothing left when the Norwegian Kristian Blummenfelt surged clear with two kilometres remaining to win in 1hr 45min 4sec.īlummenfelt, a burly 27-year-old from Bergen, even had time to slow down and perform a Viking roar before crossing the line. Just over an hour or so later, after a 1500m swim, 40km bike ride and deep into the 10km run, he was leading.įor a few tantalising minutes, gold appeared in Yee’s grasp. ![]() There was barely any time to draw breath before the 23-year-old Londoner was back in the water doing it for real. To make matters worse, Yee and the others ploughed on for another 150 metres until a speedboat carved through the waves and got them to stop.
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