He may focus on the Long Distance for the next few years, but Hayden Wilde hasn’t forgotten the short distances either. The Kiwi just won WTCS Abu Dhabi – where he was considered a favorite beforehand – in impressive fashion.
Not much happened during the swim, but the pace was very fast directly from the start. Yet a large group stayed together reasonably well, led by Australian Matthew Hauser, who finished his 750 meters in the water after 8:38.
On the bike it went fast right away and a group of fifteen men formed, who did everything they could to give the men behind no chance to catch up. A leading group of about 15 men tried to prevent a larger chasing group, including Hayden Wilde, Jonas Schomburg, Morgan Pearson and Antonio Serrat Seoane, from connecting, but their gap of about seven seconds was quickly made up and so a large peloton formed at the front.
Halfway through the 20 kilometers of biking, Wilde began to test his competitors by attacking, but no one seemed really impressed and the attack did not cost anyone the proverbial head. A new attack followed some five kilometers later and then Wilde, together with Simon Westermann and Tjebbe Kaindl, did manage to grab the lead. One bike lap before T2, they had a gap of seven seconds and so there was a serious gap.
On the way to T2, the three leaders rode fast and were working well together, but just before the transition area they were swallowed up by the group anyway and so all these men started the final five-kilometer run at the same time. Simon Westermann was the first to leave T2, shortly followed by Vasco Vilaca and Hayden Wilde.
During the first kilometer though it was Dutchman Mitch Kolkman who took the lead in the race and led a leading group with world class athletes such as Wilde, Vilaca, Hauser and Charles Paquet. Impressive, but when Wilde accelerated a bit, Kolkman and Paquet really had to get off – they ended up in a larger group behind – and so three men remained in front. Meanwhile, the tactics of Wilde were striking, running zigzagging across the road, from left to right, probably to prevent his competitors from constantly running out of the wind behind his back.
Even before halfway through the run Wilde accelerated again and then Vilaca had to come right off. Hauser, on the other hand, followed strongly and so a nice battle ensued between the New Zealander and Australian. With one kilometer to go it was Wilde who placed a final acceleration and it proved inimitable for Hauser. With that, the New Zealander ran to the best possible position at the season opener; Wilde won the race in 48:21 and Hauser was second only two seconds behind. Vilaca claimed the bronze, eighteen seconds behind the winner.
