Cassandre Beaugrand shattered another French national record but Alex Yee had a tough night as the two Olympic triathlon champions took part in the Monaco Diamond League athletics meeting on Friday evening.
The Paris 2024 winners have taken a short break from swim, bike and run to focus on the third triathlon discipline and to be racing in Monaco was a dream for both.
Beaugrand, who lives nearby, went to the meeting as a child and has always wanted to take part, while Yee was a runner before switching sports and this was his first Diamond League race since 2019.
Incredible pace
Beaugrand went first in the women’s 3,000 metres and she paced it brilliantly. She was content to sit at the back as a ferocious pace was set up front in search of a new world record.
That fizzled out a little on the penultimate lap but Agnes Ngetich left the great Faith Kipyegon trailing as she set an astonishing fastest-of-the-year time of 8:08:95, just a couple of seconds adrift of the world record.
Beaugrand meanwhile picked off plenty of her rivals in the closing laps as she finished 8:32:86 in eighth of the 16, a full three seconds quicker than the French record, which had stood since 2005, and an amazing 30 seconds better than her PB.
That made it a hat-trick for 2026 after she beat the track 5,000 metres mark in May, which had stood for more than 20 years, and the 10k road best in April.
London calling
Yee was up next in the men’s 5,000 metres and looking to go under his 13:13:89 PB from Belgium last year when he was building up to the Valancia Marathon where he set the second-fastest ever time by a Briton, behind only Sir Mo Farah.
And he too was realistic with his pacing against what were absolutely the world’s best runners at the distance.
He positioned himself near the back of the pack early on but triathlon’s quickest runner wasn’t able to move up and crossed the line in 13:27:79 in 12th.
He’d said beforehand: “Out of my depth… but that’s where I love to be!” and huge credit to him for taking on the challenge. Next up will be WTCS London in a couple of weeks on home roads as the build to the defence of his Olympic title at LA2028 gathers pace.
