Sportsmanship comes first for triathlete Hayden Wilde
Separating friendship from the emotions of competition when a contentious penalty at the Commonwealth Games enabled Brit Alex Yee to take the win, the New Zealander won plaudits for the way he handled his disappointment.
If there was a masterclass in sportsmanship, Hayden Wilde showcased it at the business end of the men's sprint triathlon at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in July.
Heading into the final bend in a head-to-head tussle with frenemy Alex Yee of England, the New Zealander – who will be racing at the World Triathlon Championship Series in the UK leg from 29-30 July – was given a 10-second penalty for a contentious transition from bike to run, cited as having unclipped his helmet before racking his bike.
The handicap needed to be served in a penalty box in the final throes of the race, but before peeling off the track to serve his time, Wilde reached out a hand to his foe for a high-five slap of palms - or a low-five slap of palms even, as both were presumably too exhausted after a 75km swim, 20km bike ride and 5km run to go the high route – before leaving his good mate and fierce rival headed down the blue carpet to the finish line for the win in front of his home crowd.
Sportsmanship comes first for Wilde
Wilde was effusive in his praise for Yee saying, "Huge shout out to [Alex] for the big W today. I tried to make that as hard a gold to win as possible. You got it over the line. Well done mate. The fight goes on."
He then congratulated Australia's Matt Hauser on his bronze before critiquing his own performance: "Super proud of my efforts winning a silver medal 🥈 at another major championship event for New Zealand. It’s not what I came for but I gave it a bloody good crack! I’ll be back again."
Only then did Wilde share his thoughts on the penalty served.
"And just to be really clear…I have lodged a formal protest over the pretty “questionable” 10s penalty I got today - I’m NOT appealing Alex’s win by any stretch, the man's performance was top class!!"
Instead, Wilde and his team suggested to World Triathlon that the sanction should be overturned, and the pair should share the win. "Once I knew I had the penalty to serve," said Wilde, who was in the lead for most of the race, only finding out in the closing stages about the penance, "it definitely influenced my run strategy."
Call of the wild
These rules have caught out athletes at high stakes moments before.
Jonny Brownlee took a 15-second penalty at London 2012 after being told his foot was on the line when he got on his bike in transition.
The Brit still managed to claim Olympic bronze in front of his home fans, saying afterwards: "I had never got a time penalty in a triathlon race before... (but) there was nothing I could do about it. It's not like you can appeal to an official when you're going 30 miles an hour."
Wilde was ultimately unsuccessful in his claim and the result stood, with the Kiwi philosophical about the experience. “I know what I did wasn’t wrong, but at the end of the day, you can’t dwell on the past, you’ve just got to look to the future, and I think that is what I’m doing currently.”
That quick refocus brought results. Just two months later, the man nicknamed the Maltese Falcon due to an amazing chase from behind at a Super League event on the Mediterranean isle early in his career, won his second consecutive Super League Series title, 'flapping his wings' as he does every time he crosses the finish line as per his moniker.
Hayden's wildest dreams
The rollercoaster continued heading into the 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series finale in November, when disappointing results for both Yee and Wilde in the final race, enabled Frenchman Leo Bergere, to capitalise and take his first win.
Again, Wilde's sportsmanship came to the fore.
"Leo, honestly I’m so happy for you mate, congratulations on the world title absolutely well deserved!! [Alex] what a year mate legendary status proud to fight side by side champ."
The 2023 season has continued in much the same vein.
A mechanical issue forced a 46-place finish at the first WTCS race of seven in Abu Dhabi in March, but it was back to normal with first and second in the next two series races, in Yokohama, Japan and Cagliari, Italy, respectively.
Wilde skipped the Montreal, Canada edition before claiming the title in the new eliminator format in Hamburg, Germany, and heads to the Sunderland event in second place, behind Portugal's Vilaca Vasco.
The WTCS finale will take place in Pontevedra, Spain from 22-24 September, but, before then, there's the Paris 2024 Olympic Test Event taking place from 17-20 August 2023, which Yee, is focusing on preparing for instead of contesting in Sunderland.
With just 12 months to go, Olympic fever is ratcheting up and Wilde knows all about the impact it can have.
Olympic dreams and reality
Watching Great Britain's Alistair Brownlee win gold at Rio 2016 is what prompted Wilde to take up the sport in the first place.
Just five years later, the Kiwi left Japan with a bronze medal in his pocket, the success marking the first time a New Zealand triathlete had won an Olympic medal since Bevan Docherty secured bronze at Beijing 2008.
Wilde doesn't have a sibling on which to rely on for competitive nous as per the Brownlee brothers – footage on a Super League Triathlon documentary showed Wilde training hard on a static bike while talking to his brothers on a video call, with one relaxing with a beer and a smoke and the other playing computer games – but he does have life experience that fuels his desire to achieve.
On crossing the finish line, Wilde burst into tears, saying: “I am pretty happy. It was good to get a medal back in triathlon.
“It was great for my coaches. That was definitely for my family and my dad as well. He passed away 12 years ago and never got to see me race.
“Yeah, it is pretty unreal. I have been in sport for nearly four years. So it is a dream come true.’’
"We've literally grown up racing stride for stride, no more than 10m apart for the last three or four years," says Yee in the Netflix and Chill documentary, which sees the pair sit side by side watching and commenting on a highlight reel of their races. "It's been really cool."
Come race day though and both want to be a step ahead of the other, especially come Paris 2024.