Wilde’s silver medal may yet turn into gold

HAYDEN Wilde admitted he was clueless. Alex Yee did not know anything about it.

But both were certain of one thing following the men’s triathlon: the real shame of the contentious finish was that the good friends and fierce rivals were denied the chance to race off for gold.

Confusion and controversy surrounded New Zealand’s first medal of the Commonwealth Games, a silver won by Wilde that may, some time in the next month, turn to gold.

After the prerace favourites had delivered what was promised and turned the triathlon into a dramatic twoman duel on Friday night, the climax the event deserved was cruelly denied.

Wilde had picked up a 10sec time penalty in the transition between the bike and run legs, adjudged to have unclipped his helmet before completely racking his bike.

While replays were inconclusive, the resulting finish was anything but.

As the two men made the final turn together at Sutton Park, Wilde gave his mate a fist bump, headed for the penalty box and watched his shot at gold disappear.

Or so he thought. About 30 minutes after Wilde had trudged down the home straight to accept his silver lining, after he had come to terms with second while still deeming the decision ‘‘a bit of a stitchup’’, word trickled out that New Zealand Triathlon had lodged a protest.

What was to follow left both Wilde and Yee perplexed but illustrated just how minor the alleged infraction had been.

After reviewing many angles of the incident for almost an hour, the race jury simply could not make a final call. The matter will now be ‘‘kicked up the chain’’, according to Wilde’s coach, Craig Kirkwood, and the Kiwi will have to wait.

Yee’s gold will remain securely around his neck — and Wilde repeatedly stressed he had no intention of trying to change that — but if the protest is successful the two friends could share the triumph.

‘‘It’s happened before, that there’s been a double gold medal,’’ Wilde said.

‘‘We’re amazing mates behind the scenes and we’re great rivals on the course. I do not want to take that medal away from him — he absolutely deserves it.

‘‘When I crossed the line, I told everyone that there was nothing we could do now. But it sounds like we can try to do something. I don’t know too much about it.’’ —