Olympic champion Alex Yee puts on masterclass on his way to Rome win
Some athletes just have a gravitas around them that scrambles the brains of their opponents, and at today’s Rome World Cup Olympic champion Alex Yee (GBR) served a reminder that his aura is as strong as ever. After finding himself on the back foot in the swim, Yee worked his way up to the front on the bike, at which point his rivals seemed to lose hope in beating him. The Briton duly showed why as he unfurled a superlative 5km run to claim his first international win since making his return to international triathlon from his marathon detour.
“It’s never easy racing these guys,” said Yee. “I decided to race this race because this kind of racing can sometimes expose me a little bit. So I really wanted to put myself in here and do my best. I really enjoyed the racing. It was hard racing, very honest. All in all, just a good race.”
In a breathless 750m swim, recent World U23 Championship medallists Michael Gar (GBR) and Zalan Hóbor (HUN) led the way. With over sixty men in the field and multiple buoys to navigate, it was easy to lose position. Yee was not immune to this and emerged outside the top-40 men and 40 seconds down on the leaders.
Joao Nuno Batista (POR), Euan De Nigro (ITA) and Nicola Azzano (ITA) were among those to make it into the growing front group, while several packs spread across the road behind with varying small gaps between them. The fast start also caught several big names out. World Cup winners Manoel Messias (BRA) and Hugo Milner (GBR) were down and out by the end of the first lap of the bike, taking two of the candidates best equipped to take on Yee in the third discipline out of the equation.
Come the end of the second bike lap, fourteen men had consolidated into a lead pack. Yet Yee and last year’s winner Arnaud Mengal (BEL) were part of a larger pack only 8 seconds back. When the inevitable followed and the packs merged, no one seemed sure how to react, as if Yee’s mere presence had paralysed the group.
One man willing to chance his arm was Connor Bentley (GBR). The 2022 World U23 champion tried to nip off the front during the latter part of the bike. As a teammate of Yee, he was perhaps one of the few not cowed by him and he soon had company from Itamar Eshed (ISR). As the group eased up, their lead extended out to 16 seconds.
Once through T2, however, Yee soon corrected this minor wrinkle in the race. He moved into the lead almost instantly, taking gold there and then like a boxer that wins with a single punch. As is his style, he looked within himself for the entirety of the 5km but the numbers do not lie. His 13:52 5km split was astonishingly quick and one of the quickest the sport has ever seen.
If the race for gold had become a procession befitting a triumphing Roman general, the rest of the medals remained up for grabs. Martin Hubner (FRA), on his World Cup debut, headed up the pack behind Yee alongside Azzano before Andree Buc (CHI) and 2025 World Junior champion Tristan Douché (FRA), another French youngster on debut, got in on the fun. Gar and Hóbor also moved up towards the end of the first lap, setting up a wild closing kilometre.
Experience may not have been on their side, but speed certainly was as Douché and Hubner flew down the blue carpet to win medals on debut. A late surge took Hubner into 2nd place while Douché hung on for 3rd over the fast-finishing Azzano and Hóbor.
