Coach recalls Alex Yee’s resilience at university and hails ‘extraordinary’ win

An athletics coach has recalled Alex Yee’s resilience during a cross-country race at university as he described the triathlete’s Olympic win as “extraordinary”.

Yee won a gold medal in the men’s individual triathlon in Paris on Wednesday after fellow GB triathlete Beth Potter secured bronze in the women’s race.

Andrew Henderson, head of athletics at Leeds Beckett University, never directly coached Yee but knew him and was well aware of his talent when he got involved in athletics and cross-country while studying sport and exercise science at the university.

Alex Yee ran an ‘extraordinary’ race to win gold (David Davies/PA)PA Wire/PA Images - David Davies

But Mr Henderson has worked with Potter for the past eight years and said she is “absolutely buzzing” about her bronze medal ahead of meeting her in Paris for a celebratory pizza.

Mr Henderson told the PA news agency that he was “definitely” aware of Yee’s talents at university, adding: “Just from seeing him move on the track in training to taking him away on these cross-country races, but not only that, I’ve also seen him race.

“You just knew there was something about him, and especially you could see that today as well – just very driven to win, to come back from being 15 seconds down to win it and put another six seconds on Hayden (Wilde) was unbelievable.”

“The way that he’s done it today is just extraordinary,” the coach added.

He recalled the time the 26-year-old won the cross-country student championship having had his foot pierced by another contestant’s shoe spike at the start of the race.

Beth Potter finished third in the women’s event (David Davies/PA)PA Wire/PA Images - David Davies

“He managed to run with a torn spike and a hole in his foot,” Mr Henderson said.

“After the race, he had to go to hospital. He spent, I think, four or five days in the hospital trying to get it stitched up and cleaned and just making sure that he hadn’t ripped too many tendons and things.

“So it was quite a tough time that weekend as well with a big hole in his foot but he still managed to win it.”

The coach was standing 600m from the finish line in Paris on Wednesday and said he and his group had to double check on BBC Sport when they saw Yee overtake Wilde for the last stretch of the run.

“We thought it was a back marker that Hayden was going past but when we looked again, it was Alex,” he said.

“And then we had to go back on the TV, on BBC Sport, and rewind just to see what happened.

“That is a big gap, so for him to do that was unbelievable.”

She's absolutely buzzing

Andrew Henderson on Beth Potter

Mr Henderson has been part of a team preparing Potter for the Paris Games.

He spoke to her after the race and told PA: “She’s absolutely buzzing. She’s buzzing. She’s really happy.

“She said it was hard, and she was just hoping that she wasn’t going to mess it up and it was a tough finish.”

The coach told of “all the effort” Potter has put into achieving the Olympic medal – switching discipline to triathlon after the Rio Games, moving to Leeds to train and supporting herself.

“And then getting to the Olympics and then also to get a medal is again just an unbelievable achievement,” he said.

“I’m actually just seeing her now, we’re meeting, she’s going to have a pizza, so we’re just going to sit down and just enjoy that,” he added.

The triathlon took competitors on a route boasting some of Paris’s most famous landmarks (David Davies/PA)PA Wire/PA Images - David Davies

Jack Maitland, Leeds Beckett’s former head of triathlon, has also been involved in coaching Potter ahead of Paris.

He told PA: “It’s a great achievement.

“Very proud of her execution today, she did everything that she could have done to keep herself at the front of the race pretty much the whole way.”

Mr Maitland said it was a “really high pressure situation”, with years of build-up behind it, and added: “She’s handled the whole run-up to the Games really, really well this year and has more confidence in herself I think.”