Hayden Wilde wins Ironman 70.3 world title after losing watch

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Author: NZ Herald,
Publish Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2026, 2:58pm

Hayden Wilde of New Zealand celebrates during the Ironman 70.3 World Championship Men's Race in Nice. Photo / Getty Images

Kiwi triathlon Olympic medallist Hayden Wilde has survived the pursuit of Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt to claim a maiden Ironman 70.3 world title in Nice.

Wilde became just the second New Zealander to win the event, joining 2008 champion Terenzo Bozzone, after finishing runner-up two years ago.

Wilde was 22nd out of the water, just 16 seconds down on the American leader Seth Rider. Out on to the bike, Wilde began to move past several athletes in front of him, riding with patient determination up the climbs to reach the top of the famous Col de Vence in seventh, just 37 seconds off the front.

As the descent back into Nice began, Wilde shifted gears and within no time joined the front five as they flew towards transition two. With the second fastest bike of the day, Wilde entered the final transition in second, just 11 seconds in arrears.

Out on the run, the Kiwi made light work of deleting the deficit to the front of the race and looked to be cruising at the halfway point.

But a charging Jelle Geens (Belgium) and Kristian Blummenfelt (Norway) lit a fuse in Wilde as he once again put his foot down on the gas to keep the fast-closing challengers at bay.

In the end, Wilde did just enough to hold on for the win, breaking the tape in three hours 50.51 minutes – just 18 seconds ahead of Blummenfelt, with reigning Ironman 70.3 World Champion Geens rounding out the podium.

Wilde dropped his watch heading out of the final transition, and says his brain had to work overtime to figure out his advantage with about two kilometres remaining.

“It’s awesome to execute a race,” said Wilde. “I was coming down the Promenade and hit about 15km and the legs felt really good, and I was like yeah, we’ve ticked that box since Taupō, now I just keep chugging along and I got to that 19km mark and really had to dig deep.

“There was still a 32 second gap, so I was doing calculations in my head where I was thinking if I just keep this pace – I didn’t have a watch – it just felt like 3.10 pace, then Kristian has to run sub 3.00 pace to catch me. So I just said, keep chugging, keep chugging, get over this little pinch and run downhill. It’s still sinking in, to be honest, but it’s just nice to get it done.

“Coming out of T2 I had all my things in my hand, and I kicked my watch, and I think I kicked it all the way into the marina – so I might have to go and buy a new one. So that was a bit frustrating. I look at the race, and it wasn’t a perfect race for me, there were a few things that were errors, but I was just really happy with how I executed the run.

“With 5km to go, I was able to hold on. The last 2km was punishing, but, you know, a great quote from Kristian is, ‘it’s worse to lose’, and yeah, it definitely is, so to hold on is something special for sure.”