Alex Yee delivered England’s first gold medal of the Commonwealth Games following victory in the individual Triathlon. The 24-year-old produced a superb comeback to defeat his biggest rival Hayden Wilde, who took the silver medal while Matthew Hauser claimed the bronze.
The competitors completed a course half the length of what is seen at the Olympics and the Englishman delivered in style. Yee found himself with some work to do early on as he finished the swim in 16th place.
Wilde put in a fantastic swim for New Zealand leaving the water in third place. There were three riders out front as the triathletes hit the road - Jamie Riddle and Tayler Reid were the two others up top with Wilde.
While the gap was initially 16 seconds between Yee and the leaders, they managed to stretch it as far as 21 seconds. By the time the bike ride had finished, Yee was in fifth place and cut the gap back down to 16 seconds as the Birmingham crowd roared him on.
The South Londoner was now in his element as he began the final part of the event - the long distance run. In no time he had whizzed into second place and began to chase down Wilde in the lead and by the end of the first lap, he was less than 10 seconds behind.
As they approached the end of the second and final lap, Yee gained momentum as they ran down a steep hill and he was within touching distance of Wilde. To the delight of the crowd, Yee overtook the New Zealander and, as he did so, it was announced Wilde had to take a 10-second penalty in the sin-bin for not putting his cycling helmet away properly in the transition - and that took place within sight of the finish line.
The pair, who are good friends as well as fierce rivals, showed good sportsmanship as Wilde gave Yee a congratulatory pat on the shoulder as they ran alongside each other. Yee then stormed to victory and took in the adulation of the crowd in the process.
The triathlete won the very first gold medal on offer at this year's Games and described it as 'his greatest achievement ever'.
"I am just happy. Just bizarre that it's me doing this. There were so many nations and athletes that I have not raced before," he said.
"I feel extremely grateful and proud to be a triathlete today. It's an amazing day for triathlon and I feel super proud to be the winner of this event. This is home Games and the first time I have been able to race in front of my parents for a long time. This is probably I'd say my greatest achievement ever. I have spent so many sessions doing the same hill so many times and when I got there it felt like I had done this race before.
"I backed my run to an extent. I am proud of my team. To hold the gap to 15 seconds on the bike was pretty good and I felt confident I could do it. Hayden [Wilde] is a great competitor."
