With the final events of the Super League Triathlon Championship Series approaching, we won’t have to wait much longer to get to know the winner of the 2022 Super League Triathlon Championship Series. In the men’s category, so far, it seems like that honor will be for Hayden Wilde, while in the women’s race America’s Taylor Spivey is just one point ahead of Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown. As Wilde leads by 11 points to Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca, the Kiwi stands a great chance to win the overall series, if he were to pull off a strong race in Toulouse, France, this weekend.
The inaugural SLT race in Toulouse will take place on Sunday, Oct. 2 at 1 PM CET. After Australia’s Matt Hauswer – in third place with a deficit of 14 points to Wilde – crashed in Malibu, Wilde has gone to the top of the ranking with a wide margin to his chasers.
“Despite winning, I was super disappointed with the first few swims in Malibu”, Wilde looks back at his last race. “Coming from New Zealand I am really confident in the open water and I had a few good starts but got myself into trouble and missed the waves every time which put me on the back foot. I got the win and I am 11 points clear now, but in Toulouse the same thing could happen to me as it did to Matt (crashing, ed.) and I could be out.”
Hauswer will continue the fight despite the setback. “I have been licking the wounds”, he told SLT. “It’s just a few scrapes and bruises, but mentally it’s a little damaging. It has hurt my chances to win it, but I will fight tooth and nail until the end. It’s an emotional rollercoaster. You are on the road, living with everyone, living and breathing triathlon. We call it the travelling circus, but it is. Credit to Hayden. He was always going to be the one to beat leading into this.”
On Sunday, athletes will race the Triple Mix format, meaning they will complete three short rounds of swim-bike-run in different order. The last race of this year’s SLT Championship Series will take place in NEOM, Saudi Arabia, on Oct. 29.
