Alistair Brownlee of Great Britain displayed his expected dominance to take a home country gold medal by 11 seconds over silver medalist Javier Gomez of Spain and 31 seconds over his brother Jonathan Brownlee, the bronze medalist, at the Men’s Olympic Triathlon in London.
After the adrenaline-filled, electrifying photo finish of the women’s race three days ago, the men’s contest was more of a coronation of Alistair Brownlee – arguably the dominant, evolutionary superior triathlete of the 21st century. Alistair has come a long way from the skinny 20-year-old who brashly ran to the front at the Beijing Olympic triathlon before hitting the wall and fading to 12th at the finish.
The elder Brownlee, 24, thus became the first Briton to win gold in the Olympic Triathlon. He is also the 19th British gold medalist in the London Olympics – which already matches the gold medal count earned by the British at the Beijing summer Olympics.
With younger brother Jonathan, 22, earning bronze, the Brownlee brothers became the first British siblings to make the Olympic medal podium in an individual event in more than half a century, Reuters reported.
“First off, (I am) immensely proud that my brother could get a bronze,” Alistair told ITU Media. "It was no secret we wanted to get both of us on the podium and that’s not an easy thing to do considering Britain has never won a triathlon medal and all the things that could go wrong for one of you, like a penalty. Then when there are two of you the odds are even worse. But we gave it everything and it shows the strength of training together and pushing each other all the time and the relationship we have.”
Gomez earned the first Olympic triathlon medal for Spain.
“The bike was not easy, we had to push hard and we all felt it on the run afterwards,” Gomez told ITU Media. “The legs were not fresh, but I think I did a pretty good run. I tried to hang on to Alistair, but he was pushing the pace faster and faster and I couldn’t keep up in the last three kilometers.”
Alistair Brownlee, the 2009 and 2011 ITU World Champion, covered the 1.5 kilometer swim, 43 kilometer bike and 10 kilometer run in London’s Hyde Park in 1:46:25.
Both Brownlees and Gomez, the 2008 and 2010 ITU World Champion, joined Richard Varga of Slovakia in the front pack of the swim in Hyde Park’s Serpentine. The Brownlees, Gomez, Varga and Alessandro Fabian of Italy quickly made an aggressive move to the front of the bike and attained a 1:14 lead on the first lap.
Eventually, Great Britain’s designated domestique Stuart Hayes joined the group and started to lead.
While the efficacy of using a designated domestique to help in Olympic racing is hotly debated, the medal-winning Brownlees unequivocally stated that ducking behind Hayes as he led the brothers into the headwinds helped them conserve energy for the run and aided their cause. "Stuart was absolutely brilliant today," Alistair told the New York Times. "I think it made the race much more interesting, more enjoyable to watch, to have that added dyynamic to it. There's two of us on the podium, but all three are immensely proud of our achievement today."
After his domestique duties were done, Hayes wrapped up his day with a 33:29 run to finish 37th of 54 finishers in 1:51:04.
Hayes took pride in his race. "I did my best to help them and it worked," Hayes told the New York Times. "Team tactics help, but those guys are amazing."
Ultimately, the six-man break finally surrendered and the Brownlees and Gomez relaxed and sat in with the enlarged pack until the end of the bike leg.
The chasers, led by Russians Alexander Bryukhankov and Dmitry Polyanskiy, Athens 2004 bronze medalist Sven Riederer of Switzerland, and 2008 Olympic champion Jan Frodeno, helped solidify a lead pack of 22 all the way to the bike-to-run transition.
Once they put on their running shoes, the Brownlees and Gomez immediately broke away from all the other contenders on the four-lap run around the Serpentine in Hyde Park.
The three ran together until Lap 2 of the run when Alistair Brownlee surged to a 10 meter lead over Gomez and Jonathan Brownlee, unable to hold the sizzling pace, fell 40 yards back.
Any hopes the brothers had of Jonathan making a comeback surge for a 1-2 finish ended after the third lap of the run when Jonathan stopped to serve a 15-second penalty for a line infraction at T1. The younger Brownlee was judged to have mounted his bike too soon in the swim-to-bike transition and was required to serve a 15-second penalty in what the British term “the naughty box.” The penalty is triathlon’s equivalent of a Formula 1 drive through for speeding in the pits.
The final difference came on the run as Alistair Brownlee left the rest behind and earned the gold with a race-best 29:07 10k. Gomez posted a 2nd-fastest 29:16, and Jonathan Brownlee ran a 3rd-best 29:37 – including the 15-second penalty.
At the finish, Alistair Brownlee had plenty of time in hand and he slowed to soak in the cheers of the home crowd with a Union Jack draped over his slender shoulders before grabbing the finish line banner. The slowdown incited speculation that he might have broken the 29 minute barrier if he had run through the finish. As it was, his run split was faster than some 2012 Olympic 10,000 meter runners on the carefully measured Olympic stadium track.
And when fast run times at the Olympic Triathlon are brought up, a close look at split times on the London Triathlon run course over the years has led some observers to speculate that the run course, much like Hamburg, is a bit short.
Gomez crossed the line in 1:46:36 for the silver and Alistair’s brother Jonathan took the bronze in 1:46:56.
Gomez’s finish was a redemption of sorts from his 2008 effort at Beijing where he was hampered by an ankle injury and fell back in a furious 4-man final sprint – and finished one spot out of the medals.
“It was pretty disappointing in Beijing,” Gomez told ITU Media. “I had a lot of problems approaching that race. I was injured and didn’t have my best day so now getting the medal after being on the podiums at World Championships, European championships and so many World Cups, it’s great to have a medal at the Olympics.”
Frenchmen David Hauss and Laurent Vidal took 4th and 5th in 1:47:14, and 1:47:20. Hauss was the final man to break 30 minutes as he ran a 4th-best 29:53 to earn the most heartbreaking position in the Olympics – 4th.
Defending Olympic champion Jan Frodeno of Germany put in a strong race to finish 6th in 1:47:26.
Four-time Olympic triathlete Simon Whitfield, who won Olympic gold at Sydney in 2000 and took silver at Beijing in 2008, crashed hard and collided with Costa Rica triathlete Leonardo Chacon in the early laps of the bike and did not finish.
“Not how I envisioned this chapter ending,” Whitfield tweeted after the race. Still, the Canadian Olympic flag bearer retained his Olympic spirit after his disappointment.
"I've got some stitches, my knee is sore, my other knee is sore, my collarbone hurts, but all in all, I'll be out in Olympic Park tomorrow," he told the New York Times.
Whitfield actually had no downtime regaining his indefatgiable sportsmanship. "I'm glad Alistair won, " he told the Times. "I was cheering him on as I was getting stitches in the medical tent."
Hunter Kemper of the U.S. combined a 17:25 swim, 58:44 bike and 31:20 run to finish 14th in 1:48:46 in his 4th Olympics.
Countryman Manuel Huerta combined an 18:57 swim, 58:51 bike and 34:39 run to finish 51st in 1:53:59.
Kemper, who finished 17th, 9th and 7th in his previous three Olympic Triathlons, was not thrilled with his performance.
“I wasn’t happy with the result that’s for sure,” he told USA Triathlon media. “I felt solid in the swim. I felt good on the bike and I was in good position with about a quarter mile to go on the bike and somehow ended up at the back -- and that’s an important part of the race. Coming out of T2 I was way far back and that was it. My run just felt kind of uncomfortable and I never really felt like I was in rhythm.”
2012 Olympic Men’s Triathlon
London, England
August 7, 2012
S 1.5k / B 40k / R 10k
Results
1. Alistair Brownlee (GBR) 1:46:25
2. Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:46:36
3. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) 1:46:56
4. David Hauss (FRA) 1:47:14
5. Laurent Vidal (FRA) 1:47:20
6. Jan Frodeno (GER) 1:47:26
7. Alexander Brukhankov (RUS) 1:47:35
8. Sven Riederer (SUI) 1:47:46
9. Joao Silva (POR) 1:47:51
10. Alessandro Fabian (ITA) 1:48:03
11. Vincent Luis (FRA) 1:48:18
12. Bevan Docherty (NZL) 1:48:35
13. Ivan Vasiliev (RUS) 1:48:43
14. Hunter Kemper (USA)
15. Kris Gemmell (NZL) 1:48:52
16. Steffen Justus (GER) 1:49:12
17. Richard Murray (RSA) 1:49:15
18. Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 1:49:19
19. Mario Mola (ESP) 1:49:23
20. Hirokatsu Tayama (JPN) 1:49:24
50. Manuel Huerta (USA) 1:53:39
