Wilde Starts 2025 With a Bang, Taking Impressive WTCS Abu Dhabi Win

The guy hasn’t done an IRONMAN, but throw any other distance at him and he’ll compete for the win. How’s this for a current resume: Hayden Wilde won today’s World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) Abu Dhabi in impressive style; the last time we saw him racing he took second at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Taupo; before that he won the WTCS Championship Final, excelled at the Supertri series and, of course, there was that dramatic silver medal at the Paris Olympics last July. He might be committed to racing the T100 Triathlon World Tour this year, but his options remain wide open if he wanted to pursue the World Triathlon Championship, too.

It’s not as though the rest of the field made things easy for the New Zealand star either. The race started with Australia’s Matt Hauser leading the way out of the water in 7:59 with Brazil’s Miguel Hidalgo four seconds back. Wilde found himself in chase mode from the gun, coming out of the water in 32nd, 29 seconds back.

Wilde made quick work of riding his way up to the front, though, charging through the field. As with the women earlier, the men were facing a stiff headwind through the first half of each of the five loops on the bike, and then enjoyed a strong push over the second half. By the end of the third loop the lead group was up to 24 men as Wilde had managed to bridge his way up to the front. As he hit the tailwind section during the fourth loop, Wilde was able to break away with Switzerland’s Simon Westermann and Austria’s Tjebbe Kaindl and the group of three were able to open up a gap of six seconds on the chase group heading into the fifth and final lap. Hauser, Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca, Great Britain’s Ben Dijkstra and Max Stapley, along with Canadian Charles Paquet pushed the pace at the front of the chase group to bring the gang back together by the end of the bike.

Wilde led the way into T2, but by the time they had hit the run course (with Vilaca leading the way) there were 23 men within 10 seconds of each other. It wasn’t long before a group of five had formed out front led by Mitch Kolkman (NED) with Vilaca, Hauser, Wilde and Paquet staying close. Kolkman and Paquet weren’t able to stay with the other three, though, as the other three started to pull clear.

Just before the end of the first lap Vilaca was dropped by the other two, setting up an Aussie vs. Kiwi duel for the gold medal. For a while Wilde was in front, but then it looked like Hauser was trying to test the Kiwi. Then as they made the sharp turn to start heading back with the wind, Wilde made his move.

Hauser was able to stay close, though, keeping things exciting down the finishing straight. There was no touching Wilde, though, as he started the 2025 WTCS season the way he finished in 2024, winning in 48:21. Hauser’s final charge got him to within two seconds (48:23), while Vilaca managed to hang on for third (48:39). Germany’s Henry Graf led the chase group contingent across the line (48:55) ahead of Switzerland’s Adrien Briffod (48:55) and Ricardo Batista (48:56).

In terms of the North American contingent, Morgan Pearson never managed to get himself in the mix, finishing 19th (49:43), while Paquet would fade over the second half of the run to take 22nd (49:48).

You can see the full results here.

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