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WATCH: Field of Dreams finalists‘Baffling’: Wilde’s Dubai T100 turns to chaos
Kieran Bingham • November 17th, 2025 11:56 am
Hayden Wilde | Photo: Photosport
Hayden Wilde’s Dubai T100 turned messy fast, and for him the cause was obvious and simple - no lap counters.
What should have been an eight-lap bike leg became nine for Wilde after he and fellow contenders Mathis Margirier and Marten Van Riel rode straight past the transition exit.
“It was a bit of chaos to be honest,” he told Sport Nation’s Scotty & Izzy.
Although frustrated, Wilde laughed at his own part in the mix-up.
“You can point fingers everywhere… and obviously some of those fingers I point that on to myself as well. Not paying attention at Trident High School to learning how to count seven laps, it’s hardcore, mate!”
But he wasn’t joking about the bigger issue. World Triathlon expects world-class athletes to track every lap themselves, with no display boards or counters on course.
“There’s still just so many rules they need to iron out… And one of those big ones is we don’t have a lap counter.”
Hayden Wilde's keys to confidence | Scotty & Izzy
His comparison made the point clear. “Imagine you’re Liam Lawson, you’ve got 75 laps and you’ve got to remember that yourself without having lap numbers in front of you.
“Or you’re on the track for athletics running a 5,000 and you don’t have a lap counter. It’s quite baffling… if you have a lap counter, it just takes out that possibility of what happened this weekend.”
The bike wasn’t the only place athletes lost count, with more than ten running one lap short. Officials eventually had to rebuild the results from the last reliably timed checkpoint.
Listen to the full interview below:
