By Kent Gray/Triathlon.kiwi
A word of advice to Alex Yee. Don’t diss Hayden Wilde, intentionally or not.
Wilde was none too pleased as Yee celebrated victory in the opening supertri race of the season in Boston overnight by crossing the line with arms boastfully folded, just ahead of Wilde.
Yee had outkicked Wilde again in a repeat of their epic Paris Olympics 1-2 accept this time there was none of the civility Wilde had shown Yee in the City of Light, rather an uncharacteristic show of superiority from the Great Brit racing for Brownlee Racing.
It was the second time Wilde (Crown Racing) has been mocked at the tape in 2024; Aussie Callum McClusky callously did a rendition of Wilde’s famed ‘Falcon’ wing flap at World Cup Napier after taking advantage of the Kiwi’s awful swim in Hawk Bay.
But Wilde didn’t see that, not live at least. Yee’s act was done right under the Kiwi’s nose and he didn’t take kindly to it.
We’re sure the Boston incident will rinse out in the wash but Wilde was already sick of second and doesn’t need any further motivation. Watch out in supertri round two in Chicago next weekend.
Wilde didn’t reference the incident in his brief interview afterwards but wasn’t happy with how the race panned out.
“Oh man, I think I’ve been seeing too many silvers in the last couple of weeks so it would be nice to get a gold so yeah, bring on Chicago,” he said.
Reigning world champion Dorian Coninx (Podium Racing) was third ahead of Olympic Mixed Relay champion Tim Hellwig (Stars & Stripes) and Wilde’s Crown racing team-mate Luis Vincent.
You were so close, Hayden, the interviewer said.
“Ah, nah, close isn’t good enough,” Wilde said before questioning the tactics of the other teams.
“It was nice to have Vincent up there, we played a good team tactic. I didn’t expect him to come through but yeah, nah, just a bit of a shame the other boys didn’t decide to come and do some work, yeah they were just hiding a bit and waiting for the run.
“I dunno, I don’t really see that as racing, I was trying to call them through but they didn’t want to go through and if I didn’t keep pushing, the other boys would have turned up so…
“It’s a bit of a shame to be honest but that’s racing, that’s their tactics and we’ll come into Chicago and try and get the win there.”
Earlier, Jeanne Lehair (Podium Racing) had captured the women’s race from Georgia Taylor-Brown (Crown Racing) and Kate Waugh (Crown Racing).
The consolation for Wilde is Crown Racing’s (84 points) position atop the team standings ahead of Podium Racing (79), Yee’s Brownlee Racing (73) and Stars & Sttripes Racing (46).
