Finishing third is not something that T100 world champion Hayden Wilde was accustomed to last season, as he swept all before him in what was a dominant fairytale return from injury.
But having run the likes of Jelle Geens and Kristian Blummenfelt so close in his first race of 2026 in Geelong last month, the Kiwi is taking great confidence from a performance that he believes stands him in good stead for Saturday’s T100 opener in Singapore.
Belgian Geens and Norway’s powerhouse Blummenfelt proved too strong in the IRONMAN 70.3 race as they hunted Wilde down in a thrilling half-marathon chase that saw Big Blu cross the line in a run time of just 1:06:39.
Not prepared for a 70.3
Wilde, who had earlier set a new Geelong bike course record of 1:56:03, always knew he wouldn’t have enough in the tank to hold off his fellow competitors; he had only signed up for the longer-distance 70.3 after the opening WTCS race in Abu Dhabi had been postponed due to the war in Iran.
But the very fact that he was able to run Geens and Blummenfelt – triathlon’s man of the moment – so close without having the right preparation behind him is something that gives him a great deal of confidence heading into his more natural 100km race this weekend.
Wilde heads up a strong field of seasoned T100 campaigners, including the likes of Mikka Noodt (GER), Jonas Schomberg (GER), Mathis Margirier (FRA), and Youri Keulen (NED), plus an extra special guest appearance from WTCS short-course world champion Matt Hauser of Australia.
The only T100 races he failed to win in 2025 were the ones where he was either recovering from the horrific career-threatening bike crash in Japan or the one in Dubai, where he missed the exit for T2 whilst leading and finished back in eighth place.
‘Well below what I know I can push for’
He accepts that, lining up in Geelong, he was a long way away from such levels of excellence and indeed preparation.
“Heading to Geelong, I knew that I wasn’t prepared for the race. I was more prepared for a sprint-distance race,” he says on a new YouTube vlog, which is embedded in this story below. “It was just a box ticker for me, to see where I was in terms of performing against two of the best in the world, with Jelle and Kristian turning up.
“I came off the bike actually feeling pretty good and had a good minute lead and got onto the run, felt really confident and actually just kind of got into a settled rhythm pretty fast and was really content with where my pace was.
“At the end of the day, that first 10-12K was well below what I know I can push for because I just wasn’t prepared for a race like that; I wasn’t prepared to run a half-marathon, I was prepared to run a 5k to 10k sprint Olympic-distance race.”
It also didn’t help that a day before lining up in Geelong, he stood on a sea urchin and injured his foot. Something he will clearly be looking to avoid when in Asia this weekend.
‘Didn’t have that top gear’
“I actually never really decreased in pace. It was a consistent pace pretty much all day, but I just didn’t have that top gear that Kristian and Jelle were running,” he said. “And to see Kristian take the win and to take it with one of the fastest-ever half-marathon splits, you’ve got to be pretty satisfied.
“Obviously, you want to win every single race, but you’ve got to be realistic as well and know that if you’re not prepared for these races, you’re going to get your ass kicked.
“It was good to see where I was, but also knowing that you’re not even close to where you feel like you were at the end of last year – that is kind of a confidence booster as well, where you’re relatively close to the front end of the race, and you’re not where you want to be yet. I guess you can take positives out of that.”
Ahead of Singapore, he has been spending a lot more time on his TT bike and preparing for the switch in distance, while also being aware that the Olympic qualification window is open and he will still need to secure his place for LA28 with the New Zealand team.
“Now the preparations are heading to Singapore,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting some more time on the TT bike, probably some longer threshold tempo runs, and getting prepared for a bit more longer distance and then turning it back into Olympic distance heading into the next few races of the season in Europe for the Olympics.”
Wilde also spoke to the T100 media team ahead of the race, as he explained further how his season will now look as the LA28 qualification process gets underway and the changing landscape of triathlon means there will be a more structured look to the calendar.
“I think it is a very good thing, the merger of World Triathlon and T100; it gives me the opportunity to dabble in both short course and T100 a lot more this year,” he said. “My calendar is a lot easier. I wouldn’t say the racing is going to be easier, but the calendar for sure is a lot more doable.
“So I’ll for sure be going for the T100 title and punting my chance back into the short course heading into LA.
“There are less T100 races, there are more World Series races, and it’s a bit more scattered over the calendar, which makes life a little bit easier. So I feel like it is way more doable this year than it was last year, and I feel that, a year since the injury, I’m closer to where I was on the swim side of things.
“I feel like I’ve got a lot of my top-end speed and power back, so that’s gonna be huge heading into the short course.”
- For a full preview of this weekend’s T100 race in Singapore, click HERE.
