Kiwi triathlete Hayden Wilde has edged closer to a spot at the Tokyo Olympic games next year after placing third at the Olympic Test event in Tokyo.
Canadian Tyler Mislawchuk and Norway's Casper Stornes took out gold and silver after a hectic sprint finish which saw the lead change multiple times down the final couple of hundred metres.
Wilde, 21, came out of the water in 42nd spot and a minute behind the leader - commonwealth games champion Henry Schoeman, but worked hard on the bike and made his way to the lead group at the end of the bike leg.
With a 10-kilometre run separating Wilde and the finish line, he lead the stacked field onto the course, throughout the run he found himself in a top-three lead group alongside Mislawchuk and Stornes.
The trio pulled away in what made for an extremely exciting finish that came down to the wire, the Canadian took the final lead around the last bend and hung on to take out the test event.
The impressive performance from Wilde comes on the same track that the eent will be run in just under a year.
Wilde continues to improve in the lead up to the Olympics - collecting sixth, fourth and now third in his last three events.
The third place finish will also see Wilde gain valuable points towards his Olympic qualification ranking for Tokyo 2020.
Newshub.
