Alex Yee, the reigning Olympic triathlon champion, finished 14th on his marathon debut in London this year with a time of 2:11:08 – and he’s just given a clear indication he could now be capable of going significantly faster.
The 27-year-old was British 10,000m champion on the track before he switched to swim, bike and run and is renowned as triathlon’s fastest runner.
And he showed his marathon training block hadn’t blunted his top-end speed as he blew his rivals away on his triathlon return recently when he won at Supertri Toronto.
Indeed part of the overall masterplan for running the London Marathon was to help Yee improve what was already his strongest triathlon discipline.
And that was underlined again on Saturday night when smashed his 5,000 metres personal best time on the track.
More than 15 seconds quicker
That had stood at 13:29.18 from the IAAF Diamond League Anniversary Games at the Olympic Park in London in 2019.
But on Saturday he took a huge chunk off that mark with a stunning time of 13:13.89 in the International IFAM meeting in Oordegem, Belgium.
That’s an average pace of just under two minutes and 39 seconds per kilometre – but by the sounds of it he was significantly quicker in the second half of the race.
Writing on Instagram he said: “13:13 over 5,000m today. Tactical first half but pleased to close in last.”
Just to put that time into context, until June this year the British male record for the distance was Sir Mo Farah’s 12:53.11 which had stood since 2011. However George Mills topped that with a 12:45:27 at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo.
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Marathon prediction time
And where this becomes really fascinating for distance running is that it now suggests Yee’s ballpark marathon time has come down significantly.
For if you put that 13:13 into a variety of age-grading calculators for a 27-year-old male then his predicted time for the 26.2-mile distance comes out anywhere between 2:04-2:07.
The British record for a marathon is 2:05:11, set by Farah at Chicago in 2018.
Of course we don’t know yet if and when Yee will attempt another marathon – and he has said that his primary focus in the coming years is defending that Olympic gold at LA2028.
With two golds, a silver and a bronze, Yee is already the most decorated Olympic triathlete of all time – male or female – and there is plenty of scope to add to that legacy.
And what we do know is that his next race will be a triathlon – the WTCS event on the French Riviera on 31st August.
