Deep in the picturesque hills of Andorra, a Kiwi sporting duo trains to try to beat the world in their respective events.
Close friends, triathlete Hayden Wilde and middle-distance runner Sam Tanner run together under the watchful eye of coach Craig Kirkwood. It's a partnership that's getting impressive results - Wilde leads the World Triathlon Series standings while Tanner's beaten some of the world's leading 1500 metres runners this year.
"We just thrive off each other and we push each other to the limits," 25-year-old Wilde tells 1News as the pair jump on a Zoom call together from Paris, with Wilde gearing up for the Olympic test event in Paris this weekend. "Sam helps me with my speed and I help him with the long stuff and it seems to work out pretty well."
"One of the best parts is our personalities line up so well and we have the same sort of views towards training so we never end up measuring each other off against each other or trying to beat each other up in training, it's just real sensible," says Tanner.
Therein lies the wisdom of having them train together. While they compete in different sports, Wilde's focus on the slightly longer running distances for triathlon - the run leg in the Olympics is 10 kilometres - helps 22-year-old Tanner build endurance and strength, while the younger of the pair's expertise in the 1500m builds Wilde's speed.
"The last few years have shown so much," Tanner begins. "My speed has been more and more usable in the last 100 metres of my race because of the strength that I've gained from training with Hayden and I know that's the same with Haydo. He's won so many races, we complement each other in training which pays off in racing. I've paced him for his hour record attempt, he's paced me for a 1500, it's not very often that sort of stuff gets to happen, so it works out pretty well."
"You've always had that pure genetic speed and it's always been there but it's using it at that correct time and now you've got that way bigger base you can rip into it and you can use it more and more," Wilde explains of his teammate, before elaborating on how it benefits his own running. "With me, I can hold and sustain a faster pace in the long stuff and if I need a kick at the end I just remember me trying to hold onto Sam for the last 200 metres and sometimes it normally works out pretty well."
The friendship and running relationship between Wilde and Tanner dates back about seven years. At the time, the older Wilde had the wood over his mate.
"The first time we ever raced, Haydo just smacked me around so hard, I was year 10 and you were year 13," Tanner says laughing with Wilde interjecting. "This fluffy haired kid was like, 'woah, you're that guy!' I was like, 'I guess I'm that guy'," they both laugh.
They race on the odd occasion, the results dependent a lot on the distance.
"Anything below 3000 (metres), if Sam's within any cooee of me in the last 400 metres, he's got me, so I need to drop Sam anywhere before the last 400," Wilde details. "In the five (thousand metres) on the track I think it would be relatively even at the moment because you've (Sam) got a way better engine. But anything above 10 (kilometres) I think I've still got you."
They've gone their separate ways for the week leading into their big events. Wilde stays in Paris for the test race, Tanner's joined the rest of the Athletics New Zealand squad before the World Championships in Budapest start this weekend, with 1500m heats on Saturday (night NZT).
Papamoa-born Tanner is optimistic of his chances, off the back of strong performances in his first year in Diamond League events.
"It's pretty exciting seeing some of the numbers I'm dropping in training. I did three 400s this morning at race pace and I thought oh that was a 58 (seconds), surely I was a bit slow and I looked down at 56 (seconds) flat and I thought 'Oh yea this is going to be fun. I was telling Haydo the other day I've actually beaten everyone in the (1500) field bar two guys at one point in time. So there's a medal up for grabs if everything goes perfectly."
Coach Kirkwood is equally positive about how Tanner's tracking.
"As they've progressed year-on-year they've just developed on their weaknesses to be better. Hopefully we'll see that at the World Championships with Sam - progress through the rounds, get to the final and who knows. The final in the 1500 metres is going to be an interesting one, (Jakob) Ingebrigtsen is probably the only certainty for a medal and then the other 11 guys in the final could all get a medal."
For Wilde, it's not just a valuable race around next year's Olympic course that he can get out of the weekend.
"There's two things up for grabs for me at this point. The first one would be the World Series; so this counts towards the World Series at the end of the year to become World Champ so, for me, to get as many points from this, ideally a podium would be a perfect scenario," Wilde explains, which would leave him with at least a 400 point lead going into the season finale in Spain in September. "But also if you get a podium it doubles as automatic qualification (for Paris 2024) for the New Zealand Team as well."
That qualification, automatic or not, seems a fait accompli for the triathlon gun.
Especially if years of running training with Sam Tanner comes to the fore.
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