GB’s Alex Yee wins triathlon silver after inflatable boat causes false start
In the sweaty heat of a young Tokyo morning, and after being caught in the most bizarre false start in his sport’s history, Alex Yee summoned the performance of his fledgling career to win a silver medal.
About 20 athletes, including Yee, had dived into the water to begin the race after hearing the starting klaxon at 6.30am – just as an inflatable boat carrying photographers drifted across the start line and stopped the rest of the 56strong field going in.
To make matters worse, Yee and the
others ploughed on for another 150m until a speedboat carved through the waves and got them to stop.
There was barely any time to draw breath before the 23-year-old Londoner was back in the water doing it for real. Just over an hour or so later, after a 1500m swim, 40km bike ride and deep into the 10km run, he was leading.
For a few tantalising minutes, gold appeared in Yee’s grasp. 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.
Blummenfelt, a burly 27-year-old from Bergen, even had time to slow down and perform a Viking roar before crossing the line. Such were his exertions he had to be karted off in a wheelchair.
Eleven seconds back was Yee, punching the air after a performance of immense grit and drive, with New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde third. “It’s a bit bizarre, really,” said Yee. “I’m just a normal guy from south-east London. Dreams really do come true.
“He was the better man on the day but I was as well prepared as I could be.”
He was being typically modest. Yee has always been a prodigious running talent – faster at 10,000m as a teenager than Mo Farah. What has changed is that his swim and bike are rapidly approaching world class too.
As Yee spoke, his compatriot Jonny Brownlee was recovering after being in a bad way at the finish. 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.
Generous as ever, Brownlee said it was now time to pass the baton to a younger man. “Alex is unbelievable,” he said. “He’s a great runner, he’s got a great head on him and knows how to race. Alex has got the ability now to dominate this sport.
“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.”
It was hard to argue. Yee had come out of the water in 32nd place, 30 seconds off the main group, which included Blummenfelt and Brownlee. 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.
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. 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.
At this point Blummenfelt decided to have a word with Yee to get him to go even faster. “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. “I said, ‘guys, we have a medal now, keep the gas on’.”
Yee did as he was told. Nine years ago, he had watched the Brownlee brothers duelling out at London 2012. Now he was duking it out for a medal, but when Blummenfelt made his move, Yee suddenly found that his legs were unable to answer.
When Blummenfelt was asked when in the race he realised he was going to win gold, he smiled. “When I was standing on the pontoon ready to go.”
Yeesaid the false start may have been a factor, but he was not going to quibblenow he had a silver medal around his neck. “If I had a different result, I’d have said it was unfair but it’s fine now,” he said. “I was confused when the boat was halfway across and they started us but when the gun goes, the gun goes and you’ve just got to go.
“I didn’t swim my best but I didn’t have a dreadful swim. Maybe it was a good warmup, you never know.”
Yee was also asked for his thoughts on whether he would take over from the Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonny, but chose to answer it in a different way. “It’s hard to say what those guys will do next but legends never die,” he said.
“Triathlon wasn’t what it is now before they started, but now it’s got the platform. I hope I can do the same.”
On this evidence, would you dare put it past him?