It’s triathlon’s biggest rivalry and against the odds we are set to be treated to the latest renewal of Alex Yee vs Hayden Wilde later this month.
The pair battled it out in epic style at the Olympics in Paris last summer, with Team GB’s Yee finding hidden reserves to overhaul his Kiwi adversary in the closing stages.
But rewind a couple of months ago and the chances of them both lining up on the same start line anytime soon seemed remote.
Yee was recovering from a small acute overload injury after taking time out from triathlon to fulfil a long-held dream of running in the London Marathon, which he did in incredible style with a time of 2:11:08 on his debut over the full distance. That was good enough for 14th place in the men’s Elite race behind winner Sabastian Sawe.
And Wilde was facing a far more worrying situation after he was hit by a truck while out riding in Japan, the potentially career-ending crash leaving him with a punctured lung, six broken ribs, and a smashed-up scapula on his left shoulder.
Thankfully he has made a remarkable recovery and has his comeback race at T100 London this weekend.
Yee back in style
And it now seems that both Yee and Wilde will square up at he first-ever WTCS French Riviera on Sunday 31st August.
Yee, the reigning WTCS champion, made his swim / bike / run return at Supertri Toronto recently and his speed didn’t seem to have been blunted by his marathon exertions as he powered to an impressive success.
On the initial start list he heads a four-man British team alongside Hugo Milner, who helped pace him at the London Marathon, Ben Dijkstra and Connor Bentley.
World title a longshot
Wilde meanwhile is the only New Zealander currently slated to take part and he’ll be looking to add to his victory in the WTCS season-opener in Abu Dhabi. As with all start lists, especially WTCS ones, note that they are provisional.
In terms of world title ambitions Yee has pretty much no margin for error – and Wilde not much more – if they are to have any chance of challenging current runaway leader Matt Hauser of Australia.
Hauser is also on the start list but he did indicate after his WTCS Hamburg victory last time out that he was returning home to focus on preparing for the Series Final in Wollongong towards the end of the season.
Some athletes face a tricky dilemma whether to compete in the WTCS race or the T100 French Riviera the day before.
That includes France’s Leo Bergere, who took the bronze behind Yee and Wilde at the Olympics, and he has elected to take the T100 option.
Full start list here – subject to change.
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