Last year’s untouchable star returns to Singapore and picks up where he left off, opening the 2026 men’s T100 season with a big win – getting off the bike and stretching while running.
Updated April 25, 2026 at 01:41 PM
After swimming alongside triathlon world champion Matt Hauser (Australia) in the bath-like waters of Marina Bay in Singapore, 2025 T100 Champion Hayden Wilde (NZL) imposed its authority on the season from the beginning. Moving to the front of the bike early, he took off on the first lap and never looked back, eventually extending his lead to more than six minutes by the end of the race.
Singapore celebrated the first men’s race of the 2026 T100 season, now in a redefined split format between the men’s and women’s races, ahead of what is set to be a major shift towards the World Triathlon Tour in 2027 after Acquisition of the challenge family.
It was a great starting lineup to start the campaign with Hauser opting for this race rather than an early WTCS showdown in Samarkand, where he was looking to test himself against his short track rival over the 100km distance.
They were joined by 2024 champion Juri Cullen, Olympians Sam Dickinson (GBR) and Henri Schumann (RSA), Jakob Birtwistle (AUS), and Germany’s Jonas Schomburg – who made the trans-Pacific journey surprisingly fresh. 7th place at Ironman Texas.
It is worth noting that with no contracts in place this season, every athlete on the line chose to be there, enduring the scorching and humid conditions to fight for the $50,000 grand prize.
How to play the race
At the start of the race, the swim was controlled, with little effort from anyone to split the field in 90-degree water. Dickinson and Menno Koolhaas led the way, while Hauser came out alongside Wilde in a tightly packed group.
With almost the entire field making it to T1 together, this was anyone’s race — until Wild made his move nearly six miles on the bike. From there, he steadily distanced himself from the field.
Behind him, Matthijs Margerier (FRA) made one of the biggest early moves, moving up eight places, while Hauser initially held strong near the front before fading after 40km into his unfamiliar TT position, eventually dropping to around six minutes before the end of the bike.
Then came what was set to be one of the most viral racing moments in triathlon history (which has already racked up 5 million views on Instagram) when Wilde hit a bump, his bottle ricocheting off his cage and somehow balancing on his saddle. If anything, this “magic” portends that nothing will stop him on this day.
However, late in the bike, Dickinson maintained his pace and moved up to second by just two minutes, before a chain dropped from the corner suddenly cost him valuable time.
This would be as close as anyone would get to escaping, as the Falcon only extended his lead, He wears a new open-top bucket hat designed to help control the heat. Margier then moved into the podium position ahead of Dickinson but began to suffer from heel pain, eventually falling to eighth.
That opened the door for Mika Naudt to move up to third, finishing third behind Dickinson, with Koolhaas close behind and Hauser taking a strong sixth place to shed his rookie status in what he described as a “big learning curve” after the race.
But all eyes were on Wild as he once again managed the heat better than anyone else, claiming back-to-back wins in Singapore and rebounding from the third place he finished at 70.3 Geelong earlier this season behind Gilly Jens (BEL) and Christian Blumenfelt (NO).
After the race, Wild noted that conditions were hotter than last year – which was reflected in the splits, with only he coming close to matching the 2025 times.
Dickinson, in second place, focused on running “his own race”, while Naudt explained that his plan was to be patient throughout – both methods that earned them podium places and prize checks worth $40,000 and $30,000 respectively.
Hauser’s sixth-place result stands out as he now turns attention back to short track racing, with the WTCS season starting on the same day and Olympic qualification looming at the end of May.
There are three more races remaining for both men and women before they come together in the grand final in Qatar. An athlete’s top three results, plus their performance in the Grand Final, will determine the final standings.
