Alex Yee athletics’ club never doubted he would win the men’s Olympic triathlon after he pulled off a stunning final surge in Paris, his former training partner has revealed.
The triathlete was nearly 15 seconds behind New Zealand’s Hayden White going into the final lap of the 10 kilometre run.
The 26-year-old looked beaten but had enough in his legs to push past Wilde with 500 metres to go to cross the finish line first on the Pont Alexandre III.
Runner Owen Hind, 33, first met the double Olympic gold medalist when he arrived at Kent Athletics Club aged 15.
He told the Standard: “The second lap of the run definitely raised some heart rates.
“There were 200 people on our WhatsApp group all going ‘it’s not over’ because we know the talent he has got.
“We know the training commitment he has had for the past 10 years.
“We always believed the gold medal opportunity was there until someone crossed the line in front of him - and no one did.”
Describing the moment he watched his friend claim a second Olympic gold medal, after he anchored Britain to mixed relay gold in Tokyo, Mr Hind said: “Seeing someone who you know, and are friends with, and talk to and know, not just their success but every mile that has got them to that kick, it is a different emotion.”
The pair both trained together under the same coach at the Ladywell-based club for five years between 2014 and 2019.
Mr Hind later supported Yee after he suffered broken ribs and a collapsed lung in a high-speed bike crash in Italy in 2017.
The runners first met after Yee was scouted by Coach Ken Pike after competing at an amateur athletics open event at Crystal Palace.
The athlete, who has also run for England, said: “It was immediately obvious when he turned up that there was something about him. That he was not the same as your average club runner or even your top quality, front end runner.
“Even at 15 he would be there gliding along with us.
“You could just tell really early on that with the right support and right attitude that something like today was possible.”
A large group of Kent AC runners travelled to Paris to support Yee, with his brother cycling from London to the French capital to catch the nail biting race.
The club had booked a pub for 7am on Tuesday, when the race was due to take place before it was cancelled at only a few hours’ notice due to poor water quality in the River Seine.
There had even been whispers that the event could be turned into a duathlon, with athletes running, cycling then running again, if the water quality did not improve in time.
Yee was forced to settle for Silver at the Tokyo Olympics after Norwegian athlete Kristian Blummenfelt pulled away around 4km into the run.
The Lewisham star found himself in a similar situation in Paris but one final surge was enough to spur him to an extraordinary gold medal.
Mr Hind added: “He has always wanted to win but he has not been scared to put himself in situations where he might not.
“No doubt his phone will be blowing up with media from all over the world. We don’t expect to hear from him for a couple of days but we definitely will. He will be on the WhatsApp group and see all the love that exists for him.
“He still competes for Kent AC, obviously not very regularly, he’s still in contact, he’s still there, he still pays attention. When he has a second to think about us he will get in contact.”
Speaking after the race Yee said: “I was riding a bit of a bad patch from 2-6K.
“And maybe in my head I probably thought ‘second’, with the guys closing quite rapidly behind, that was the best thing for me. But I just didn’t want to give up on myself.”
Yee watched Brownlee win gold in Hyde Park 12 years ago and the two-time gold medallist was among the hordes packing the side of the course around central Paris.
“It’s pretty special,” he said of having emulated the Yorkshireman, before revealing the role Britain’s greatest triathlete played in the closing stages.
“Alistair was one of the people with one lap to go who said to me, ‘Anything can happen, mate’. He shouted that out. It’s a pretty special moment to look back at that now.”
The triathlete will now turn his attention to trying to defend his mixed relay title on Monday.
