Newly crowned IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion, Hayden Wilde, admits he will have to splash some cash this week – after accidentally kicking his watch across T2 and into the Mediterranean Sea.

The New Zealand superstar was left to effectively run the crucial half-marathon blind without any idea of his own split times as his equipment slowly dropped to the bottom of the Bassin Lympia.

At one point he even asked fellow front-runner Lasse Nygaard Priester what pace they were doing as he looked to maintain the gap that he had built up on rivals Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) and defending champion Jelle Geens (BEL).

Climbed from 20th up to first on the bike

That advantage had been garnered thanks to an impressive bike leg which saw Wilde climb from 20th out of the water up to the head of the pack and enter T2 just seconds behind Italian Michele Bortolamedi.

Without his watch, he was forced to run on gut instinct, but that was enough to ensure there was no repeat of his 2024 heartache, when he was agonisingly caught by Geens in the final stages of this race in Taupō.

While both Geens and Blummenfelt – who produced what is believed to be the fastest run split in IRONMAN 70.3 history, clocking 01:05:12 – threatened to ruin the Kiwi’s day, he managed to hold on and cross 18 seconds ahead of the Norwegian.

“It’s awesome to execute a race,” he said. “I was coming down the promenade, and when I reached around 15km, my legs still felt really good. I thought: ‘Yeah, I’m going to tick that box after Taupō.’

‘I told myself to just keep chugging’

“I just kept chugging along. When I reached around the 19km mark, I was told the gap was 30 seconds, so I started doing calculations in my head. I didn’t have a watch, but it felt like I was running at around 3:10 per kilometre pace. I thought Kristian would have to run at under a three-minute pace to catch me.

“I told myself to just keep chugging, get over the little pinch and then run downhill. It is still sinking in, to be honest, but it’s just nice to get it done. I was probably a bit slow over that first five or six kilometres, but I think that paid dividends and gave me the extra gears I needed later on.”

Ever the perfectionist, he was the first to admit that his world title race was far from perfect, including the issue with his watch, which he accepts is now probably lost forever.

“Coming out of T2, I had all my things in my hand, and it dropped, and I kicked my watch,” he said. “I think I kicked it all the way into the marina, so I might have to go and buy a new one! That was a bit frustrating.

‘To be able to hold on is something special’

“When I look back at the race, it wasn’t perfect for me. There were a few errors, but I was really happy with how I executed the run.

“With 5km to go, I was able to hold on. The last 2km was punishing, but, you know, a great quote from Kristian is, ‘It feels worse to lose’, and yeah, it definitely does, so to be able to hold on is something special for sure.”

Wilde will now have a week to recover from his 70.3 world title exploits as he prepares for the third race of a four-in-four-weeks programme that started with his second-place finish at the Supertri Pro Series Final in Jersey on September 6.

With the T100 French Riviera closely followed by the WTCS World Championship Final in Pontevedra a week later, he will need to ease any aching limbs in double-quick time… and maybe also buy himself a new watch.

• READ MORE: For a full report and analysis of the men’s IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, click HERE.
• READ MORE: For a full breakdown of where the men finished at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, click HERE.
• READ MORE: For a full report and analysis of the women’s IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, click HERE.
• READ MORE: For a full breakdown of where the women finished at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, click HERE.