Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee became the second-fastest Briton of all time as he clocked a simply stunning 2:06:38 when he finished seventh behind Kenya’s John Korir in the Valencia Marathon on Sunday.
To put that performance into context, the fastest-ever marathon time by a Briton is Sir Mo Farah’s 2:05:11 at the Chicago Marathon in 2018, with the next best having previously been Emile Cairess’ 2:06:46 at the London Marathon last year.
Cairess was on hand here to help pace both Yee and fellow Brit Phil Sesemann, the trio having trained together over the last few months.
And the three of them judged it to perfection – Yee went through the halfway mark in 1:03:32 before adding a 1:03:06 second half for an impressive negative split.
Yee has devoted the bulk of this year to marathon training, making his debut on home roads in London in April when he clocked 2:11:08.
But he clearly felt there was more to come and used the year after his triathlon gold in Paris to focus on the 26.2-mile distance before moving back to swim, bike and run in 2026 as the build to LA2028 starts to gather pace.
And what he produced in Valencia would put him way, way under the Olympic qualifying standard for the marathon should he ever want to choose that path.
Perfect pacing
Valencia had long been identified as the target for his second attempt at 26.2 miles – the time of year usually means ideal conditions for what is one of the quickest marathons in the world.
The temperatures in Spain were actually a little higher than ideal – 14 degrees Celsius at the start at 08:15 local time and rising into the low 20s by midday.
But Yee was finished well before then as he and Sesemann executed their plans perfectly, helped by superb pacemaking from Cairess, fourth in the marathon at the Olympics last year.
The British trio went through the first 10km in 30:08 and at the halfway point (13.1 miles, 21.1km) they were at 1:03:30 to 1:30:32, pretty much exactly on pre-race target.
They continued the momentum – it was 1:30:23 at the 30km mark and the big question now was could they maintain that to the finish when the marathon really begins to bite?
Top tier display
The answer was an emphatic ‘yes’ and it was Yee who just moved clear of Sesemann in the closing stages, crossing the line in seventh place in the elite field in what must rank as one of the great sporting performances for an athlete moving into a different field.
Yee of course was a track runner before triathlon became his primary focus but a marathon is a world away from 10,000 metres.
Sesemann stopped the clock in 2:07:11, which was also a PB for him by six seconds.
Meanwhile the men’s race was won in impressive style 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 women’s title went to Joyciline Jepkosgei in a fastest-of-the-year time of 2:14:00.
Men’s top 10 results – Sunday December 7:
| Position | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Korir (KEN) | 2:02:24 |
| 2 | Amanal Petros (GER) | 2:04:03 |
| 3 | Awet Kibrab (NOR) | 2:04:24 |
| 4 | Suguru Osako (JPN) | 2:04:55 |
| 5 | Gashau Ayale (ISR) | 2:05:29 |
| 6 | Justus Kangogo (KEN) | 2:06:10 |
| 7 | Alex Yee (GBR) | 2:06:38 |
| 8 | Felix Bour (FRA) | 2:06:41 |
| 9 | Filmon Tefsu (NLD) | 2:06:42 |
| 10 | Gemechu Dida (ETH) | 2:06:45 |
