Hayden Wilde captures T100 title in Spain
- Dave Worsley
- Sep 21
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 22
New Zealand's Hayden Wilde has a four-from-four record on the T100 Triathlon circuit after the Andorra-based 28-year-old made short work of the latest event in Spain.
Wilde dispatched rival Jelle Geens at Oropesa Del Mar pulling away from the Belgian on the run to win by a whopping 2mins 25 seconds.
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It means Wilde has won every T100 race he’s started: Singapore, London, French Riviera and now Spain. Wilde has won comfortably at every stop – his 22sec win over Geens in Frejus on the Côte d’Azur was the only victory margin sub a minute or more.
The three wins since London have come post a training ride in Tokyo on May 4 crash that looked season ending.
best four performances plus the grand final count so Wilde can do no more to improve his lot heading into the Dec. 11-13 ‘Race to Qatar’ finale in Doha.
He'll line up in Wollongong on Oct. 18 or Dubai on Nov. 16, nor has it given him a false sense of superiority. As far as the outcome of the season at least.
“It’s super nice, you know,” Wilde said of his comfortable lead atop the T100 standings.
“I’ve come out to say I really want to win every race so I’ll be pushing until Qatar and, as I said, the season isn’t over until Qatar.
“I’ve been in this position many times and I’ve fallen short, so I’ve just give it all to keep the pressure on and hopefully to do well in Qatar to bring it home.”
Wilde’s swim, and lack of mobility in his left shoulder, has been an issue at WTCS level but is less of a concern over the longer distances.
He admitted to finding the 80km bike tough and was made to sweat by Geens’ super quick getaway in T2, good for an 18 second gap.
“Jelle should go for a Guinness World Record of putting socks on because I was right beside him [in T2] and I was like ‘Wow, he’s already gone’ and I’ve got one sock on already,” Wilde said.
“So he put 15 seconds [18 according to the TV footage] onto me at the start of the run and I just made sure I was relaxed and I slowly caught up to him which was nice.
Once I caught up to him I could see it turn into a bit of a tactical race. Around lap four I decided to put the afterburners on just to see how he was feeling and yeah, I was able to drop him. I just kept the pace there.”
Meanwhile it was another tough day for Kyle Smith who was visibly upset after coping a drafting penalty and eventually DNF’d.
There was much better news for the other Kiwi in Oropesa with Hannah Berry claiming 6th in the women’s race won by Brit Lucy Charles-Barclay in a British sweep with Kate Waugh and Jessica Learmouth.
It was the Mount Maunganui 34-year-old’s fourth successive top 10 and sees her up to 8th in the season standings in her thus far thoroughly impressive debut T100 season.
The top 10 after Doha earn full contracts for 2026.
