There are some titles that insert an athlete into the pantheon of greatness and the Ultimate Athlete Mount Maunganui might just be one of the most prestigious.
For Hayden Wilde, the Olympic bronze medal and WTCS wins might not be able to stack up to what he achieved at the weekend. In his native New Zealand, he won the elite 10km race at the Ultimate Athlete.
With 25 obstacles to contend with over the course, Wilde finished in a time of 43:40, 3 minutes 43 seconds ahead of the next quickest athlete. In doing so, he made it a second consecutive win on home soil after his triumph at the New Plymouth World Cup in March.
Among some of the early obstacles were crawling tunnels, under and over walls and the much-vaunted monkey bars.
As the course progressed, Wilde was faced with a beach crawl under a net, a seesaw to navigate and a net climb into descending a fireman’s pole.
With less than two weeks to go until WTCS Yokohama, Wilde will be able to put his feet up and let his arms recover from his exertions. When he arrives in Japan for his next race, though, he will do so as the Ultimate Athlete.
