Olympic bronze medalist Hayden Wilde just showed to still possess some strong triathlon-skills, as he started 2022 off by winning the Oceania Triathlon Cup New Plymouth. In the women’s race, it was New Zealand’s Nicole van der Kaay who took home the biggest trophy.
It was Dylan Mccullough (NZL) who lead the men out of the water by swimming 9:50 minute over 750 meters. Wilde was already well in the mix after that first discipline, as he exited the water in fifth place with a 9-second deficit. Tayler Reid (NZL) and Trent Thorpe (NZL) were in second and third position.
Once in the saddle, Wilde made a big move, as he took off on his own and noted the fastest bike time of the day (33:31 minutes). Nobody was able to get him back into sight, as he continued his surge by running the fastest 5K of the day: 14:55 minutes. With a time of 59:36 minutes on the clock – the only sub-1 hour of the day – Wilde took the win. Reid took second (+1:46) and Mccullough finished in third (+1:56).
From start to finish, she was in the lead: Van der Kaay. Clocking a time of 11 minutes on the swim, Van der Kaay was first out of the water. On the bike, a group of four formed with Van der Kaay, Ainsley Thorpe (NZL), Eva Goodisson (NZL) and Andrea Hansen (NZL). It were these four who ended up sharing the podium.
Running a 16:49 minutes over 5000 meters, Van der Kaay was soon off once she hit the road for the run. Hansen ran herself to silver thanks to her 17:12-minute 5K, Goodisson took third, while Thorpe had to settle for fourth.
