Bramhope’s Olympic gold medallist Alistair Brownlee has won three national honours.

He was awarded the Olympic Athlete of the Year at the British Triathlon annual awards ceremony in Birmingham, and was named GE British Triathlon Male Elite Triathlete of the Year for the fifth successive year.

Also Alistair, his brother Jonny, who won bronze, and Stuart Hayes collected the Peter Holmes Award for Inspirational Performance in International Compet- ition for their efforts in the London Games.

In what has been Britain’s most successful ever year in the sport, men’s Olympic champion Brownlee delighted hundreds of thousands in Hyde Park, and inspired millions more with his dominant gold medal-winning performance.

On an evening designed to celebrate outstanding success, over 400 guests stood to recognise the former Bradford Grammar School pupil and the other five London Olympians.

The elder Brownlee said: “Until the Olympics I never understood it when someone would say it takes a while to sink in, but it’s definitely taken a while to sink in. I didn’t know how I would feel when I crossed the finishing line because it’s a dream I’ve had since I was eight years old, but it’s finally sunk in now and I’m ready to move on and achieve some more targets.

“I’ve never had the chance to race in the Common- wealth Games, so I’m looking forward to that and lots of other new things.”

Coaches involved in the success of the Brownlee Brothers were recognised on Tuesday night at the 2012 UK Coaching Awards at the Lancaster Hotel in London.

The Coaching Chain award was presented to five coaches who have helped shape the careers of the Brownlees including their current coaches, Jack Maitland and Malcolm Brown.

The event, hosted by Sports Coach UK, helps to raise the profile of coaches and the vital role they play encouraging participation, performance and excellence.

Jack Maitland, Malcolm Brown, Charles Lines, Tony Kingham and Corrinne Tantrum have all made a huge impact.

They guided Alistair and Jonathan from Bradford Swimming Club, through school and on to Olympic and ITU world titles in triathlon.