Is there a more unhappy marriage than Hayden Wilde and penalties?
Coming out of the swim at the WTCS Final, Wilde’s cap slipped from his fingers as he shifted it from his right hand to his left. He could only look on as he continued running and the hat fell onto the pontoon. Rather than stop, Wilde made his way to T1 where he thereupon received a 15 second penalty for having his equipment outside of his box.
He subsequently missed the front pack and made it onto the run over 45 seconds down on the leaders. With his penalty to serve, his hopes of the win were extinguished.
It also followed his unfortunate penalty at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The sight of the officials standing over the offending hat was one of the more bizarre aspects of the men’s race. While Dorian Coninx won the race and the world title with a wonderfully executed display, Wilde was left to rue another lost shot at the world title.
The penalty itself was particularly freakish.
The loss of a hat is not an uncommon occurrence. After all, Jamie Riddle’s hat fell off in the men’s race at the World U23 Championships earlier in the day.
Even more frustratingly for Wilde, had his hat fallen into the water and not onto the pontoon it would not have been a penalty. Either way, it will have been a galling way to end his year.
Bad luck has dogged Wilde at every stage of the 2023 season.
He had an untimely crash before the Paris Test Event which prevented him from running and finishing the race. That came after a flu affected him at WTCS Sunderland and a mechanical on the bike thwarted him at the season opener in Abu Dhabi.
After a series of unfortunate events, the mishap in Pontevedra will really stick in the craw.
With his ongoing misfortunes and in the weirdest possible way, another world title has slipped through Wilde’s fingers.
