London 2012: GOLD FOR BRITAIN! Stuart Hayes helps Alistair Brownlee to win in men’s triathlon

by Tom Moore
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
1:35 PM

Olympics triathlon: 1. Alistair Brownlee, 2. Javier Gomez, 3. Jonny Brownlee

Stuart Hayes did the best job he could to help Alistair and Jonny Brownlee and succeeded by helping Alistair to gold and Jonny to bronze.

The Isleworth-born athlete was there as a domestique for the medal hopefuls.

His job was made more difficult when Jonny was given a 15-second penalty for pedalling too early in the cycle phase.

The swim phase of the race with Spain’s Javier Gomez, Slovakia’s Richard Varga and Italy’s Alessandro Fabian and the Brownlee’s having a 20 second lead.

They were hauled in by the chase group, with Hayes at the back of that pack.

The 33-year-old took charge of the lead group, once they came together and managed the speed of the pack.

He was never expected to feature in the run and on the third lap, Jonny dropped off the back of Gomez and Alistair and was still to serve his penalty.

With the Union flags flying around the course the older Brownlee broke away from Gomez to go into the last lap.

Jonny took his penalty at the end of the third lap and kept his third place, 27 seconds behind second-placed Gomez and 13 seconds ahead of the French duo of Laurent Vidal and David Hauss.

Alistair Brownlee pulled away further and had a comfortable lead going into the last kilometre and it was the younger Brownlee who made the move on Gomez, cutting the gap down.

He grabbed the Union flag to enter the home straight and waved to the crowd and walked across the line to win Britain’s 19th gold medal of the games.

Jonny made it a British one-three, finishing 20 seconds away from Gomez.

Hayes came in in 37th, four minutes and 39 seconds behind the leader and was full of praise for the medalists.

“It’s not me,” he said moments after crossing the line. “It’s the two Brownlees.

“Team tactics helped. I couldn’t imagine anyone beating them.

“It was a great race. It’s a great moment for British triathlon. We’ve got it right now after three attempts.

“The crowd was amazing. It was unbelievable.

“I don’t know if it was a personal best. It was a good day today.”