“That’s bulls**t.”
Two words spoken by Kiwi triathlete Hayden Wilde after crossing the line for silver in a thrilling, brutal, yet controversial men’s race at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
After a meaningful and respectful embrace with gold medal-winner, Alex Yee of England, Wilde turned to some of his team and gave the blunt assessment.
What followed was two hours of behind-the-scenes sporting drama that left everyone at Sutton Park wondering what was going on.
Quick recap – Wilde was handed a 10-second time penalty for, what officials deemed, a premature and illegal unclipping of his helmet in the transition between the bike and run legs. He had led for most of the race, but had to change tactics to figure out when to serve the penalty, allowing Yee to catch up and claim gold.
After his initial frustration at crossing the line, Wilde was, reluctantly, accepting of the decision and wasn’t going to appeal.
Until he talked to his team.
They had half an hour after crossing the line to lodge the protest; his team having to pay an up-front fee of US$50 before that appeal was then upgraded to a “Level 2”, meaning the fee increased to US$500.
Only then was all the available vision of the incident made available to Wilde’s team.
Inside the room with officials was coach Craig Kirkwood and two other Triathlon NZ officials, with as many as three referees. The mood and discussion between the two parties was “amicable and respectful.”
Those close to Wilde outside the appeal room were adamant he’d been hard done by, one of them telling me, “the longer this goes on, the better it is for us.”
READ MORE: Wilde appeals time penalty, could be promoted to triathlon gold
That group, the media and officials, all seen on phones, some running between various areas of the venue to figure out what was happening.
Then news the medal ceremony would take place, with the result still up in the air. Wilde would receive silver on the podium, with any upgrade to his placing possibly taking up to 30 days.
All this with the start of the women’s race approaching. Wilde seen heading out the back of the venue with a New Zealand flag draped around his shoulders – still wondering is it silver, or is it gold?
Note: Nobody in Wilde’s team ever wanted to take the gold away from Yee.
SHARE ME