Kiwi triathlete Hayden Wilde says he is gutted at the split decision penalty that may have lost him gold at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, but he is not giving up on his medal dreams.
Wilde was given a 10-second penalty after he was ruled to have unclipped his helmet before docking his bike at the end of the cycle leg. Rules state the helmet must be securely fastened before a bike is unracked and remain in place "until the bike is securely racked again".
The 24-year-old was forced to yield on the home straight and allow rival Alex Yee from England to claim gold, consigning him to a silver medal.
"I'm definitely a little bit gutted but also extremely proud," Wilde told the hosts on AM. "As an athlete, we strive to get these medals and to get another medal on a major games is a dream come true."
Wilde has launched an official protest over the time penalty that will take up to 30 days to adjudicate and could see the Whakatane product promoted to share gold with Yee.
"Any second counts… For me, I've been doing that sort of technique for my whole career and you could see in the video footage that my wheel was well inside the rack," he said.
"I knew I did it perfectly."
He didn't know the penalty and if he was told, which you don't find out until the race is over, he would have potentially sprinted across the line in the fight for gold.
"If I knew exactly what it was I think I would have risked it."
Wilde said he had a discussion with Ye who agreed it was the wrong call and was gutted they missed out on battling it out in the final stretch.
"I think not just for as athletes but for the crowd and for the fans of the sport they missed out on such an epic last 200m of the race," Wilde said. "It would have been an amazing battle to the end."
Wilde, who was leading the pack for most of the race, said he still had some gas in the tank to sprint for first place against Ye who had worked hard to catch up to him in the run.
He said whatever the ruling, which World Triathlon will oversee, it doesn't take away from Ye's top performance.
"It would be a double gold, but If not, I'm super proud of the silver medal and it just gets me up in the morning more hungry to come to the next Commonwealth Games, or Olympics, to get the gold medal."
