Hayden Wilde ‘overcooked’ and brutally honest as he reacts to T1 Lievin World Cup defeat

Pre-race favourite Hayden Wilde has given his reaction to his disappointing fifth-place result at the T1 Indoor Triathlon World Cup Lievin on Saturday night.

The man nicknamed the Maltese Falcon for an amazing chase from behind on the Mediterranean island earlier in his career wasn’t doing his flapping wings celebration in France as Germany’s Henry Graf won the event on Saturday.

But Wilde, the current number one short-course athlete and winner of the opening WTCS race in Abu Dhabi, was always focused on the middle-distance T100 series this season with Singapore in his sights next week.

Hayden Wilde on Lievin

In a post on his official Instagram account, the charismatic Kiwi said: “Man what a day, @‌t100triathlon @‌lievintriathlonindoor @‌worldtriathlon what a show super fun format, really enjoyed myself out there.

“Came into this one well overcooked with my eyes on Singapore @‌t100triathlon. Kudos to all the lads you can’t come into this arena and expect an easy ride.

“For me this is totally out of my comfort zone, I know I’m a better open-water swimmer than in the pool and that showed.”

New Zealand triathlete Hayden Wilde finishes second in the 2024 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Taupo (Photo – Fiona Goodall, Getty Images for IRONMAN).

The race format in Lievin was a 200m swim in a purpose-built 25m pool, before a 2.8km bike and 1km run on the same 200m track.

That didn’t suit Wilde, who fell too far behind after the swim, and acknowledged that race winner Henry Graf, Frenchman Antoine Duval and Holland’s Mitch Kolkman are “king of the pool” and “outclassed everyone” to finish in the top three.

“Game over”

But the 27-year-old Paris silver medallist put it all down to experience, saying: “This sort of racing isn’t suited for me but this is why I showed up to work on my skills and knowledge.

“When you’re in the pack it’s pretty much impossible to move up and when you’re at the back it’s pretty much game over even with the fastest bike and run splits it wasn’t enough to come back with this short format and paid for it in the carnage of T2.”

Wilde decided to taper back on his short-course racing in 2025 and will instead experiment with longer distances.

He won in Abu Dhabi last month but won’t appear again in the WTCS series until October as he concentrates on middle-distance action.

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