Alex Yee runs 13:52 to win in Rome, then anchors Britain to the mixed relay title
The Olympic champion came from 40 seconds down after the swim to win his first international race since his marathon detour. Diana Isakova beat Tilda Månsson by one second in the women’s race.
Alex Yee won the Rome World Triathlon Cup on 3 October, recovering from a poor swim to finish 25 seconds clear after a 13:52 run over the closing 5 km. The next morning he anchored Great Britain to victory in the mixed team relay on the same course.
It was the Olympic champion’s first international win since he returned to triathlon from his marathon detour, World Triathlon said, and it followed WTCS medals in Karlovy Vary and at the Grand Final in Pontevedra. Rome was his last race of the season.
Yee finished the sprint course (750 m swim, 20 km bike, 5 km run) in 53:47. Two French athletes making their World Cup debuts, Martin Hubner and Tristan Douché, were second and third, both in 54:12, according to the results published by USA Triathlon and Triathlon News.
From 43rd out of the water
The race did not start well for Yee. Zalán Hóbor of Hungary and Britain’s Michael Gar led the swim in 9:04, and Yee left the water in 43rd place, 40 seconds down, according to Triathlon News’s reading of the official splits.
The fast start cost others more. Brazil’s Manoel Messias and Britain’s Hugo Milner, both World Cup winners, were dropped on the first bike lap, World Triathlon reported.
By the end of the second of five bike laps, 14 men led with a larger group including Yee eight seconds behind. After the groups merged, Connor Bentley and Israel’s Itamar Eshed built a 16-second lead late on the bike, but Yee took the front almost as soon as the run began.
His 13:52 was the fastest run of the race by 25 seconds. It was not quite the quickest World Cup 5 km of 2026: Milner ran 13:51 in Haikou, World Triathlon noted.
“It’s never easy racing these guys,” Yee said. “I decided to race this race because this kind of racing can sometimes expose me a little bit. So I really wanted to put myself in here and do my best.”
Behind him, Italy’s Nicola Azzano finished fourth, two seconds off the podium, with Hóbor fifth. Germany’s Lasse Lührs, back from heel surgery, was eighth.
One second in the women’s race
The women’s race came down to a sprint between Diana Isakova, racing as an Individual Neutral Athlete, and Sweden’s Tilda Månsson, the WTCS Yokohama winner.
Italy’s Bianca Seregni swam 9:36, 18 seconds faster than anyone else, but 21 women reached the second transition within four seconds of each other, Triathlon News reported.
Isakova, who recorded the fastest bike split, led out onto the run. Månsson lost time with a shoe in transition, then caught her and ran the fastest 5 km of the day, 15:42 to Isakova’s 15:48. Isakova attacked on the uphill section before the finish and held on by one second. It was her second World Cup win of the season, after Haikou in March.
Taylor Spivey of the United States took bronze, 16 seconds behind, at her first World Cup since 2018. “I started triathlon back in 2012 when I was studying in Florence so it’s great to come back to Italy and get on the podium,” she told USA Triathlon. Germany’s Nina Eim was fourth in her first race since injuring her hip at WTCS Yokohama in May.
Waugh’s bike leg settles the relay
In the mixed relay on 4 October, Olivia Mathias, Bentley, Kate Waugh and Yee won in 1:17:22, ahead of Italy (1:18:19) and Portugal (1:18:33), according to USA Triathlon.
Waugh, the T100 world champion, made the decisive move on the third leg. After Seregni led Italy out of the water, Waugh broke clear on the bike and gained about half a minute. Italy’s Euan De Nigro then beat Portugal’s Miguel Tiago Silva on the run for second.
World Triathlon said Rome and the same course will host next year’s World Mixed Team Relay Championship.
What comes next
Rome opened the autumn World Cup swing, and every race in it carries ranking points towards the LA28 Olympics. The qualification period opened on 18 May 2026 and runs to 18 May 2028. Under World Triathlon’s system a World Cup is worth 500 points, half the value of a WTCS race, and an athlete’s 12 best scores count, with no more than eight from races shorter than the Olympic distance. The next stop, the Beijing World Cup at Yanqi Lake on 17 October, is over the standard (Olympic) distance.
