This time a year ago Marten Van Riel had just been crowned the men’s T100 champion and he did a shout out for Kiwi superstar Hayden Wilde to join the PTO’s flagship race series.
Fast forward 12 months and the Belgian might be forgiven for thinking twice about what he wishes for next time as Wilde has completely bossed the 2025 series, winning six of his seven races to run away with the title as Van Riel had to settle for sixth.
But the spirit of the T100 is the best racing the best, which raises the bar for everyone – so no surprise to see Wilde looking to continue the momentum by calling on virtually every other short-course star to get involved next year and beyond.
‘Raising the bar’
Top of the list were Alex Yee, the man who beat him to Olympic gold in Paris last year and who has just set a sensational marathon time of 2:06:38 in Valencia – which suggests the step up in trip won’t exactly inconvenience him.
And Matt Hauser, who has enjoyed pretty much the perfect WTCS campaign as he became world champion in that format.
Wilde said: “I just want to see more short-course athletes come and toss it up with us.
“The likes of Matty Hauser and Alex. If those guys want to come over and have a bit of fun that would be great. I love this sort of racing where it really shows how good you can be individually on the bike and the run.
“And there are a few other short-course guys who have been dabbling a little bit – Miguel [Hidalgo] and Vasco [Vilaca], it would be nice to have those guys as well.
“Let’s just keep people coming along, keep the competition up and keep raising the bar.”
A class apart
Wilde produced another masterclass in Qatar to seal a thoroughly deserved overall title, all the more impressive given what could have been career-threatening injuries sustained in the spring when a truck hit him on a training ride.
“It’s pretty special from starting in Singapore and then being in hospital a bit,” said Wilde afterwards with something of an understatement given the injuries he sustained in that bike crash in Japan.
“To then win a few races, it’s been a bit special. It’s been a long season but it’s nice to finish on that note.
“I’m just so happy with how everything has turned out here. I love the pressure and I love being hunted but I came here with a smile on my face and it’s a nice place to be. To be the guy with a target on his back fires me up.
“It was a good swim and I was more or less close to the group – 30+ seconds and it then only took me a few k to get [close] on the bike. That bike was hard though, it was just on and off.
“I got onto the run with a nice gap to the runners of the competition. I could see Rico [Bogen] was having a good run so I needed to keep my wits about me and then obviously Morgan [Pearson] was having a stormer in the first 15k but I was able to hold on.”
This weekend’s huge news that the PTO and World Triathlon are effectively merging from 2027 onwards adds another dimension and means the likes of Wilde should be able to combine Olympic – or T50 distance – with T100, even as we approach LA2028.
