Your 2022 Super League Triathlon Champions Are Taylor-Brown And Wilde

Georgia Taylor-Brown and Hayden Wilde’s unforgettable year continued apace today in the spectacular setting of NEOM, Saudi Arabia, with the duo confirmed as the 2022 Super League Triathlon Championship Series winners.

Taylor-Brown, 28, went into the final event of the five-race Series level on 56 series points with the USA’s Taylor Spivey, and it came down to a straight shootout on the final run leg to decide where the Championship Series title would be heading. That run leg saw Taylor-Brown break the heart of fellow Brit Sophie Coldwell with 200m to go to defend her title.

Coldwell would hold onto second to secure the Championship Series bronze, with Beth Potter finishing third on the day (fourth overall in the series), Spivey fourth and New Zealand’s Nicole Van der Kaay in fifth. In the midst of emotional scenes, former World Champion Non Stanford would come home in 12th in the final elite race of her storied career.

“The series win means an awful lot to me,” said Taylor-Brown at the finish. “It’s been a long season but we’ve had five incredible Series races and I’m so happy to have come out on top. You never know what to expect with Super League as it’s always changing. Sometimes it’s down to pure luck, but I’ve kept my head down and given my all in every race.”

In the men’s event, New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde began the race knowing that a top 15 finish would secure the overall crown. The frenetic racing action saw the 25-year-old Kiwi finish third behind Australia’s dominant race winner Matt Hauser and Brit Jonny Brownlee on a multisport course like no other.

Wilde’s series win continued a brilliant year for the New Zealander, which has already seen him take second behind Alex Yee at the Commonwealth Games and could still witness him become the 2022 ITU World Champion in November.

“Jonny and Matt were pushing and pushing all day so I’m just stoked to hold onto third,” revealed Wilde at the finish. “Having the gravel [on the bike course] and being in the middle of nowhere was amazing, and it’s really nice to finish here with an amazing atmosphere and some nice warm weather.”

While Wilde took the overall 2022 Championship Series honours, it’d be Australia’s Hauser, 24, who strode to victory in NEOM. The Aussie ended a dramatic series of crashes and disputed false start decisions to secure the round win after breaking away from the decorated Brit Jonny Brownlee, 32, on the day’s final run leg. Hauser’s win saw him finish second overall in the series ahead of Brownlee, with Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca in fourth and New Zealand’s Tayler Reid fifth.

The day’s results saw the Bahrain Victorious Scorpions dramatically secure the teams title ahead of the Sharks by just two points, with $120,000 shared between the men and women on the team. The win also saw Taylor-Brown secure a bumper prize cheque in excess of $130,000, with Wilde in line to secure over $150,000 for his Super League Championship exploits in 2022.

Today’s format was the famous Super League three-stage Enduro, the mighty mix of endurance and speed last used in Munich, Germany, in Round 2, where Taylor-Brown and Hauser were also the convincing winners.

The three back-to-back stages tasked athletes with a 300m swim in the warm, salty and buoyant Red Sea, before a single lap 4km bike leg on a mix of gravel and asphalt surfaces, before a final 1.6km run.