The Brit rounds off a spectacular season by claiming a maiden world crown at the World Triathlon Championship Finals in Andalusia, Spain
Alex Yee has added a world triathlon title to his Olympic individual gold medal.
The 26-year-old went into the race in Andalusia (October 20) 428 points ahead of Frenchman Léo Bergere and knew that a top-six finish would be enough to secure a maiden world triathlon crown.
Yee was in a strong position going into the final event of the championships as he’d already recorded wins in Cagliari (May 25) and Weihai (September 27), while his Olympic gold medal – although a non-series event – contributed to the overall points tally.
That lead gave Yee a significant advantage going into Andalusia and, even though he was 21 seconds off the leading pack heading into the cycle, the prospect that he’d lose the world title looked slim.
Maintaining sixth position for the majority of the race, Yee kept in touch with the leading pack through the bike section.
World Champ on the mic
The king of the sport, @Lixsanyee
reflects back on a third place performance that was enough to seal him the World
Title
#Triathlon #TorremolinosFinals
pic.twitter.com/4XBkXu0F9d
— World Triathlon (@worldtriathlon) October 20, 2024
— World Triathlon (@worldtriathlon) October 20, 2024
When it came to the run there was little doubt that Yee, with personal 5km and 10,000m bests of 13:26 and 27:51.94, would make up ground.
He duly did so and placed third behind Hayden Wilde and Bergere.
Yee and Bergere finished on 4069 and 3728 points respectively.
“This is something which has evaded me for the last three years so makes it all the more sweeter,” said Yee, who agonisingly missed out on the world title in both 2022 and 2023.
“I’m world champion and couldn’t be prouder of this season. It shows people at home with hard work anything can happen. Pressure makes diamonds so hopefully I showed that today.”
Hayden Wilde and Alex Yee (Getty)
It means that Yee is now a world and Olympic champion.
At the Olympics, the Brit looked like he’d have to settle for another individual silver – Yee was beaten to gold by Kristian Blummenfelt in Tokyo – but produced a late surge to overtake Wilde with just a few corners of the Parisian course left.
After crossing the line first, Yee fist bumped the air and knew that he had the gold medal in the bag, winning by six seconds.
» Subscribe to AW magazine here, check out our new podcast here or sign up to our…
CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at AW…