Alistair Brownlee’s hopes of winning a third successive Olympic title appear to be over after he was disqualified for “ducking” a rival during a World Triathlon Championship Series race in Leeds.
The 33-year-old has struggled with injuries in recent months but was hoping to do enough to secure the second place in the British men’s team alongside his brother Jonny. However on the swim he was judged to have pushed the American Chase McQueen under the water and disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct, although later insisted it was accidental. Brownlee, who won gold at London 2012 and Rio 2016, continued to race, and only found out while on the 10km run after finishing the swim and bike section.
“It was just a really tough day,” he said. “My coach told me when I was on the run. I’ve seen the video since, but in the swim anything can happen in the middle of a stroke. I can guarantee that the same thing happened to me 10 seconds before and afterwards, but it’s a subjective field of play decision.”
Brownlee’s hopes of going to Tokyo took another blow when 23-year-old Alex Yee, tipped to challenge for an Olympic medal, sprinted away to win his first series event. And Brownlee appeared to accept the chances of a hat-trick were ebbing away.
“I have really struggled over the last three or four months with an injury and I needed a bit of a miracle,” he said. “I’ve done everything I can. I’ve trained as hard as I can. I’ve done all the medical treatment I can. Today I needed a bit of luck and I didn’t get it. I wanted one more swing of the dice but it didn’t work out.”
The selectors will decide in the coming weeks who will get the second spot, while Britain could yet earn a third place if they send a team to Mexico next week and do well. But Yee rightly indicated that he expected to go.
“That’s probably the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life,” Yee said. “The best person will go because I trust the governing body to make the right decision.”
In the women’s race Britain’s Jess Learmonth was denied victory by the Netherlands’ Maya Kingma. Meanwhile, Sophie Coldwell and Lucy Charles-Barclay were third and fifth respectively, while Beth Potter – who ran the fastest 5k road time in April – took seventh.