“Very debatable.”
New Zealand sprint triathlete Hayden Wilde, for example, saw a penalty ruling that clearly hampered his quest for gold and sparked a protest on day one of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
The protest could take up to 30 days to judge and could potentially result in Wilde’s promotion to double gold with race winner Alex Yee.
Wilde was chased on the run by England’s great rival Yee, who had also picked him for silver at the Tokyo Olympics last year.
Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
New Zealander Hayden Wilde after serving a 10-second penalty and finishing second in the men’s triathlon.
The 24-year-old was given a 10-second time penalty at the end of the cycling leg in transition for prematurely loosening his helmet – in the 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run on the first day of competition.
As the duo entered the final straight, Wilde fisted Yee and waited to serve his time penalty before finishing 13 seconds behind the host nation’s star.
Wilde said the penalty caused uncertainty in his mind as Yee closed the gap on him, saying he followed the same routine for almost the entire season during the transition.
The NZ team decided after consultation to protest the penalty because of the impact it had on Wilde’s walking leg.
“I knew exactly what it was – which is highly debatable.
“I had to consider ‘will I be disqualified and then protest, or will I get that second place?’, and I am not going to risk that for my country,” said Wilde.
“I didn’t really know what to do – maybe I should have taken it on the first lap and then try to track down Alex, or see if I can stop him.”
Wilde said at first he wasn’t sure what he was being punished for.
Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
New Zealander Hayden Wilde faces a 10-second penalty while England’s Alex Yee wins the race.
“I just saw V1, which is a foul… I thought ‘Did I just hit someone in the water or something? I didn’t really know.
“If I knew it was the helmet…aah, maybe, but why risk a medal, you know?
“There’s such a fine line – I definitely knew I had my bike in the rack and I used it as a balance plate – when you come off the bike your legs are a little jelly. I had it [the helmet] in one hand I got ready to untie and… started to take off my shoes and put my helmet in the box.
AARON WOOD/STUFF
New Zealand will send 232 athletes to the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
“I’ve done it almost all season and haven’t been caught for a penalty yet, so extremely debatable, but that’s what you do when you get that close to marginal gains.”
Wilde and NZ teammate Tayler Reid immediately stake their claim by taking the lead after the first swim and extending that advantage on the bike, moving on to the final run portion.
Wilde immediately showed his prowess on the run, but Yee quickly began his pursuit and his eventual path to gold.