Where Eagles Dare! Yee flying high after Super League Malibu and Championship Wins
A scintillating Super League Series Championship finale in Malibu, California saw Great Britain’s Alex Yee outsprint Belgium’s Marten Van Riel by just 0.2 second to take the victory on the shoreline of Zumba Beach.
Yee used all his experience as an international track runner to pace himself throughout the last 1.6 km run and then in the last 100 metres went into overdrive for maximum power in the dash to the line.
Yee’s victory in Malibu today also ensured the Brit was the overall Super League Triathlon champion, with just 1.6 seconds separating Yee from his nearest challenger, New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde and over-taking the pre-race leader Jonny Brownlee
The Wild Card entry of Kristian Blummenfelt saw all three medallist of the Tokyo Olympic Games plus the 70.3 World Champion Gustav Iden competing for the series’ honours and a share of the $1.25m prize purse
The Malibu event witnessed the Super League’s original ‘Eliminator’ format come into play where athletes were eliminated at the end of each discipline and at the end of each mini-race—after the swim, bike, and at the finish. This goes on for three rounds, with athletes fighting hard not be eliminated, whist at the same time managing their effort against fatigue.
Stage 1 – swim-bike-run (10-minute break to reset)
Stage 2 – (Top 15 finishers from Stage 1) swim-bike-run (10-minute break to reset)
Stage 3 – (Top 10 finishers from Stage 2) swim-bike-run
As the remaining athletes headed into the Stage 3 of the race, none of the overall title contenders held any Short Chutes, so the championship race was wide open.
It was Tayler Ried, Marten Van Reil and Vincent Luis who led the charge out of the choppy waters of the Pacific Ocean with Vasco Vilaca, Blummenfelt and Van Riel dropping the watt bombs on the bike leg. The stage was now set for a titanic battle on the run, with Van Riel holding the Short Chute advantage
Onto the final 1.6km run and Wilde was leading at the final bell ahead of Blummenfelt, with Brownlee needing to beat Wilde to take the series crown. Van Riel played his Short Chute to lead with 400m to go.
The chasers desperately attempted to return to the front, with Yee and Wilde now the only contenders for the overall title. Yee was third with 100m to go and moved into second on the last turn of the day.
The race win was now a battle between Van Riel and Yee, and it looked like Belgian success until Yee surged ahead at the line to take the win from the lunging Van Riel by just 0.2 seconds. An unforgettable end to an unforgettable year for the British triathlete.
Race Results can be found here:
