Hayden Wilde sprints to win in Abu Dhabi
- Dave Worsley
- Feb 17
- 2 min read
New Zealand triathlete Hayden Wilde has won the WTCS Abu Dhabi title in a sprint finish over Australia’s Matt Hauser.
Wilde had to claw back 30 seconds out of the watere, reeling in the leaders and then even splitting the field late on in a three-man breakaway.
LATEST HEADLINES:
He finally passed Vasco Vilaça and then Hauser to take the gold in a time of 48.21 just 0.2 of a second ahead of the Australian.
'I just went out there and had a bit of fun, you know,' said a delighted WIlde. 'I feel like this is my second home, I've been here for about three or four weeks and, you know, they just welcomed me in with open arms and I've just been loving it here. I got a breakaway with my breakaway mate again and it didn't really stick, but we had good fun out there!'
'I've raced Matt over the 5K many times and I saw his coach and he was like, “one more push!” and I'm like, I know, I know for sure he's got one more push, so I just had to hold the pace on, and he was coming hot, and I was just happy to hold on. But with Matt, Morgan, all those guys, I know I had to push hard on the bike to drop a few of the good runners and it looks like we did that and got away.'
The brand-new sprint-distance course packed plenty of surprises, not least a strong right-to-left current and bright glare to cope with on the 750m swim.
Hauser and Hidalgo were followed out of the water by Miguel Tiago Silva and the rising German bullet Henry Graf, Dutch duo Ian Pennekamp (on debut) and Mitch Kolman, Wilde was half a minute back.
At the end of lap one the gap was 13 seconds from Wilde onto Stapley, Hauser and Kolkman, by lap three he was leading the pack back past the crowds.
It became Wilde-Hauser-Vilaça trio with daylight to the chasers and that gap just edged further out at each split. Over 10 seconds at the bell, that was also when Vilaça started to drop off and then it was the Aussie and Kiwi shoulder-to-shoulder.
Down the penultimate straight one last time with the wind at their backs, it was then that Wilde seized the moment decisively, breaking the Hauser challenge with a surge.
The Australian never let up and it was full gas to the line, only two seconds separating the men at the finish, 18s back to Vilaça and an outstanding finish from Graf saw him into fourth a fraction ahead of Adrien Briffod.
