The Commonwealth Games are dubbed the friendly Games and the spirit was seen near the finish line of the sprint triathlon race. New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde was in the lead and on course to win the triathlon gold medal, which would have opened his country’s account at the Birmingham Games. But just before he was about to cross the finish line in the 5km run, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist learnt about a 10-second penalty imposed on him for breaking a rule.
If he would’ve completed the race without serving the time penalty, Wilde would have had a ‘did not finish’ (DNF) alongside his name on the result sheet. So, Wilde – who was clear of the rest of the field, halted for 10 seconds, and ‘welcomed’ his title rival and close friend, Alex Yee of England, as he entered the final stretch. The two athletes gave each other a high-five, Wilde patted Yee, who won a silver medal at the Tokyo Games, on the shoulder and saw him get past the finish line ahead of him in the first position.
The New Zealander had, by then, finished serving his time penalty and crossed the finishing line in the second position to win the silver medal. The punishment meted out to Wilde was controversial and hotly debated. At the end of the 20km bike race, Wilde was in the lead. However, the race officials alleged that he did not put his cycling helmet away properly, as per rules, during the transition phase from bike to run. Consequently, he was sent to the sin bin for 10 seconds.
Wilde had the option of appealing the decision. However, if his appeal wasn’t upheld, he would have been DNFed. So, he settled for a silver medal, allowing his friend to win a gold medal on home soil. Yee had earlier spoken about the bonding between the two triathletes. “We are extremely good mates. We want to beat each other but off the course, we have great laughs. That’s how sport should be,” Yee had said. “We are all good mates on the circuit, there’s no bad blood or massive rivalries. You aren’t going to make millions in triathlons — everyone does the sport because they love it which is why I enjoy it so much.”
Racing to earn money after father’s death
Circumstances had drawn Wilde to the sport. When he was 10, his father Andrew, a pilot, died in a top-dressing plane accident in 2007. Wilde was at a friend’s house when the friend’s mother got a call and told him to go back home. “It was obviously pretty traumatic as a young fella at primary school. It’s a crappy position to be in but you just have to live with it and try to move on, carry the flag and hopefully become a decent person at the end of it,” Wilde told New Zealand Herald this May.
With finances drying up, Wilde didn’t want to tax his mother and make it on his own. He was a landscaper, building walls, fences, anything that could get him money. He raced to earn money. “It was pretty damn tough at times and the only way I was going to survive and get to the next race was if I performed. I worked five or six months in the year then risked it all to go to Asia, to see how I went for two months. I stayed on a friend’s couch, had some good results, then couch surfed with friends in Europe.
“I was a landscaper, building retaining walls, fences, all sorts. My body was pretty tired but I really enjoyed my time with that crew. I did that as my gym training, but looking back, trying to balance that with how I train now would be extremely hard.”
