Yee nails Olympic qualification with decisive win in Paris

Alex Yee ran his way to a huge win in Paris today and grabbed an automatic selection for Team Great Britain at the Olympics next summer. The Tokyo silver medalist “cruised” through a 29:00 run to easily take the win over Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca, who outsprinted Frances Dorian Coninx. French athletes took fourth and fifth, too, with Pierre Le Corre getting to the line ahead of reigning world champion Leo Bergere. American Morgan Pearson finished sixth, enough to earn him automatic selection for the Games next year.

Luis leads the swim

Returning from injury, France’s Vincent Luis led the way out of the Seine and into T1, but there was never much of a gap to a huge group. Yee was just 20 seconds down after the swim, with WTCS series leader Hayden Wilde (53 seconds down) and Tokyo gold medalist Kristian Blummenfelt (1 minute behind) driving the chase group.

A group of five got clear for a bit, but eventually there was a group of about 20 out in front. By the end of the third lap, though, Blummenfelt and Wilde had helped bring everything together. That meant a huge group of over 50 entered T2 at the same time, setting things up for a 10 km run for the title.

Wilde, who had crashed on his bike yesterday and hurt his hip, would have to stop early in the run.

With the only man who has been able to push Yee over the last few years out of the race, there was no challenging the Brit, who was happy to let Pearson and Blummenfelt have some time at the front before cruising away for a decisive win.

Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk would finish 13th, with Brock Hoel ending up 37th. Charles Paquet didn’t start.

You can find full results from today’s race here.