story identification - Novel about alien conquerers who conduct games to select servants

I read this maybe 10-15 years ago.

Aliens have conquered earth. Possibly quite some time before the time then novel is set in. They have built their own cities. They conduct periodic athletic competitions for humans similar to the current olympics. The winners are take into the city to act as servants to the masters. The protagonist is part of a human resistance movement who is competing in the games. The plan is to infiltrate the city, gather intel and escape. He wins, get in, finally has to kill his master and escape down a waste disposal system which ends up outside the city.

Anybody knows which one I am talking about?

Answer

This sounds like the second book from The Tripods series:

The City of Gold and Lead (1968)

After a year in the White Mountains, the resistance charges Will, Beanpole, and a German boy, Fritz, to infiltrate a Tripod city by competing in a regional sporting exhibition. Will, a boxer, and Fritz, a runner, win their respective contests, while Beanpole fails to win in the jumping events.

The winners are taken to the Tripod city in a pressurised dome astride a river. Inside the city, the boys discover the Tripods' operators, whom they refer to as the 'Masters'. [...]

(source: Wikipedia)

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