If you watched the amazing Brownlee brothers finishing their triathlon in Cozumel, Mexico, and didn’t shed a tear then you have no soul. Nor heart, possibly liver, lungs or even head.

Brother Jonny was winning the race. And would have become World champion if he had. But he’d upped the pace a little too much in his keenness and about 200 yards from the end of the run (having already swam for 150 miles and cycled for 3 days… ish) he just buckled. Started veering round like a drunk. He’d lost it. Staggering. With the winning line just ‘THERE’ in front of him.

Along comes brother Alistair, throws an arm round Jonny and quite literally carries him to the finish line. Where he threw him across that line in front of himself.

But the best bit of all is that Alistair was not speaking words of encouragement into his brother’s ear, nor words of support. He was taking the piss. And calling him abusive names for getting the race wrong. Alistair laughed his way to the finish line. Which made the whole thing much much better than if it had been some gritty-toothed, stiff-upper-lipped epic struggle.

And after the most amazing ending any race could have, the crowd screaming and crying, Jonny goes off to hospital.

This was a defining moment. Because it defined every value that any sport ever tries to encapsulate. Except boxing, obviously. It is the ultimate sacrifice (Alistair would have won if he hadn’t stopped to help) and an almost biblical act of brotherliness. Except brothers in the bible was more about murder, wife-swapping, stealing birthrights…

And that’s why Alistair Brownlee is my new hero. Because on the interview they showed, long after the race, he was basically still laughing, still calling his brother a tosser for planning the race wrongly.

And its also why I hate the Spaniards. Who put in an appeal to have Jonny disqualified for ‘accepting assistance’ during the race. A magnificent moment in sporting history and those fucking paella-suckers couldn’t even work out that helping an injured athlete is within the rules of the game (which it is) before disgracing themselves so that their man, Juan… (guessing here)… whoever, would come 7th instead of 8th. This moment is so much more important that who came 3rd, won a medal, claimed the championship, and yet that’s what they did. Don’t know if I can ever forgive them.

Don’t know that they’ll ever care.

Happy Tuesday

A xxxx