Hayden Wilde has bossed the T100 this season and even Morgan Pearson, the man who has got closest to him in the last couple of races, admits the Kiwi star is a class apart.
Pearson could hardly have finished the season stronger – he won Dubai T100 after Wilde and many others were undone by some lap-counting confusion.
And the American then ran through the field in the Grand Final in Qatar to take second place behind Wilde – his run time of 56:42 easily the quickest of the day, with Wilde next best at 58:08 as only four men dipped under the hour mark.
Lethal weapon
But speaking afterwards, Pearson said: “Hayden is another level right now. He deserves it and it’s honestly just an honour to race against him in this format.
“So to come out second behind him is great.”
Pearson’s run has always been a weapon – he’s a WTCS winner in short course – but he revealed he’s been working hard on making it even more of a strength.
He explained: “I’ve been changing my run training the last couple of months. I was maybe a little bit off earlier in the year so I switched things up at the end of the summer and I’ve been training like a monster for this race – putting every effort into it.
“And I think it showed here – I felt good, felt smooth and a fast run was good, I was proud of myself.”
Having fun again
And no other athlete in T100 has had such a smooth upward trajectory in terms of finishing positions than Pearson.
In what is his first campaign in the format as one of the invited ‘Hotshots’, he came eighth on his debut in San Francisco, seventh next time out in Vancouver and then sixth at French Riviera before his end-of-season podiums.
And he added: “This whole season I’ve been trying to improve. I didn’t want to put pressure on myself – I did the Olympics last year and that’s high pressure so I really just wanted to find my love and enjoyment of triathlon again.
“And I did in the last couple of months and it’s showing – you’re having fun and then you finish on the podium.”
