Alex Yee Shatters Data at Valencia Marathon with Historic Time

Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee turned the second-fastest Briton of all time as he clocked a merely gorgeous 2:06:38 when he completed seventh behind Kenya’s John Korir within the Valencia Marathon on Sunday.

To place that efficiency into context, the fastest-ever marathon time by a Briton is Sir Mo Farah’s 2:05:11 on the Chicago Marathon in 2018, with the subsequent finest having beforehand been Emile Cairess’ 2:06:46 on the London Marathon final yr.

Cairess was readily available right here to assist tempo each Yee and fellow Brit Phil Sesemann, the trio having educated collectively over the previous couple of months.

And the three of them judged it to perfection – Yee went by means of the midway mark in 1:03:32 earlier than including a 1:03:06 second half for a formidable detrimental cut up.

Yee has devoted the majority of this yr to marathon coaching, making his debut on dwelling roads in London in April when he clocked 2:11:08.

However he clearly felt there was extra to come back and used the yr after his triathlon gold in Paris to concentrate on the 26.2-mile distance earlier than transferring again to swim, bike and run in 2026 because the construct to LA2028 begins to assemble tempo.

And what he produced in Valencia would put him manner, manner beneath the Olympic qualifying normal for the marathon ought to he ever need to select that path.

Excellent pacing

Valencia had lengthy been recognized because the goal for his second try at 26.2 miles – the time of yr normally means superb situations for what is likely one of the quickest marathons on the earth.

The temperatures in Spain had been truly just a little larger than superb – 14 levels Celsius initially at 08:15 native time and rising into the low 20s by noon.

However Yee was completed properly earlier than then as he and Sesemann executed their plans completely, helped by very good pacemaking from Cairess, fourth within the marathon on the Olympics final yr.

The British trio went by means of the primary 10km in 30:08 and on the midway level (13.1 miles, 21.1km) they had been at 1:03:30 to 1:30:32, just about precisely on pre-race goal.

They continued the momentum – it was 1:30:23 on the 30km mark and the large query now was may they preserve that to the end when the marathon actually begins to chunk?

High tier show

The reply was an emphatic ‘sure’ and it was Yee who simply moved away from Sesemann within the closing phases, crossing the road in seventh place within the elite subject in what should rank as one of many nice sporting performances for an athlete transferring into a special subject.

Yee after all was a monitor runner earlier than triathlon turned his major focus however a marathon is a world away from 10,000 metres.

Sesemann stopped the clock in 2:07:11, which was additionally a PB for him by six seconds.

In the meantime the lads’s race was gained in spectacular type in 2:02:24 by Korir, the reigning Boston Marathon champion and winner of the 2024 Chicago Marathon. It was a Kenyan double as the ladies’s title went to Joyciline Jepkosgei in a fastest-of-the-year time of two:14:00.

Males’s prime 10 outcomes – Sunday December 7: