Golden boy Alex Yee hailed the influence of the Brownlee boys - then set his sights on taking triathlon to the next level.
One of the great come-from-behind wins brought England’s first medal of these Commonwealth Games. Yee overturned a 21-second deficit to beat world No1 Hayden Wilde, overhauling the Kiwi on the 5km run at Sutton Park.
“It’s a bit of a fairytale, isn’t it?” said the 24-year old, whose win was followed by a silver medal for team mate Georgia Taylor-Brown in the women’s event.
“It's home, it's the first race of the Games. I don't think there'll be an opportunity in my life to get to do this again. This is totally unique.”
The result was tinged with controversy as Wilde was slapped with a 10-second penalty at the end of the cycle leg for unclipping his helmet prematurely in transition.
The New Zealander was informed midway through his run and his team would protest an “extremely debatable” judgement for two hours afterwards.
But the truth is Yee had closed the gap by then and the writing was not so much on the wall as scrawled on every yard of tarmac on the hilly 2.5km course.
As the south Londoner passed his great rival Wilde sportingly tapped him on the back in recognition that on this day he had been beaten by a better man.
There was poetic justice in the result given Wilde had caused an accident that put Yee and Jonny Brownlee out of a recent triathlon in Leeds, forcing the latter to miss yesterday’s race.
Mention of Brownlee’s name caused Yee to pay homage to the first family of triathlon and explain how his presence on top of the podium was very much down to them.
He told how as a 14-year old he had taken a train to London to watch Jonny and brother Alistair take bronze and gold at the 2012 Olympics.
“They definitely were my inspiration,” he said. “I was already doing triathlon but watching the boys there was a special moment for me.
“To have London 2012 on my doorstep, just a tube journey away, but not even get in the front row because of the size of the crowds, I just thought that was utterly ridiculous - and I want a piece of that.”
Ten years on it was Yee, Olympic silver medalist in Tokyo a year ago, pulling in fans in huge number and the changing of the guard was not lost on him.
“Hopefully there is somebody in the crowd here who is like I was and will maybe take over my legacy one day,” he said.
“Somebody that I can race in a relay with, as I did with Jonny in Tokyo. That would be pretty cool.
“Hopefully what I've done will have the same effect for someone.”
Taylor-Brown, like Yee a silver medalist in Japan, admitted she was growing a little fed up of losing out to Flora Duffy after once again following Bermuda's Olympic champion home.
The 28-year-old, who was tied for the lead through the swim and cycle, said: "I’m a bit bored of coming second to Flora constantly so we need to change that."
