If there are two men on the Short Distance that can deliver some thrilling racing, it’s New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde and Britain’s Alex Yee. The Olympic medalists will face each other again in the “biggest ever” Super League Triathlon Championship Series, which kicks off this weekend in London (Sep. 4).
The two have been racing each other quite a lot this year, delivering some interesting battles. So far this year it’s been Yee who won most of these battles that ended up in the two taking first and second place: the Commonwealth Games were in the favor of Yee, just like the World Triathlon Sprint Championships Montreal, and the WTCS race in Yokohama. On the short SLT format – at the Arena Games finals in Singapore – it was Hayden who took the win and Yee who finished second, though. One thing is for sure, triathlon fans will be looking forward to these toeing the line again in the same event.
Athletes will be racing the Triple Mix format this weekend, which means athletes will race three short triathlons in different order, the first being a normal swim-bike-run, then a run-bike-swim, and finally a bike-swim-run. The final race athletes will start with the accumulated time difference of the first two legs.
Tim Don, a former pro triathlete himself but not managing one of the SLT teams, said about Yee: “Alex’s strength is his momentum and run ability, and he’s learning his craft with every race. Alex got the better of him in the Commonwealth Games, where that run in the relay was magnificent. I worry that Hayden has taken on too much… Alex wants to be world champion this year. He’s a local lad and will be hard to beat.”
