Craig Kirkwood: Hayden Wilde's coach on the men's Olympic triathlon being postponed after the Seine failed pollution tests

Hayden Wilde's coach is hoping for a better forecast tomorrow after a postponement stopped him in his tracks. 

The men's triathlon event, originally scheduled for 6pm tonight, has been delayed to 8.45pm tomorrow due to the Seine failing water quality tests this afternoon.

Craig Kirkwood won't deny this is frustrating - but he was prepared for this.

"We've had two days of fine weather and we're onto our third, so hopefully this is the last of the high E.coli levels."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the men's triathon at the Olympics has been postponed.
The race was going to happen tonight, I believe six
pm our time. It's now scheduled to take place at
eight forty five pm tomorrow, New Zealand time. This is
after the women's triathan Ki we hate and Wild of
course is hoping to get a medal in the men's
triathm when it does finally happen and Hayden's coach Craig
Kurtwood joins me.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Now, Hello, Craig, good, good morning or good evening for
news ELND. So frustrating, yes, yeah, frustrating, a bit of
an annoyance, but it was It had been forecast for
a while that there could be delays due to water quality,
so it's not completely unexpected, but we were really hoping

(00:41):
we'd be able to race this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Well, they tell you about the river.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Just at the El Cola. Levels were too high based
on the rainfall that was occurred over the weekend, which
didn't seem like a huge amount of rain, but I
think any runoff causes a bit of a stir in
the river and causes levels to spike. So we've had
two days fine, we her now and we're on to
our third So hopefully this is the last of the

(01:07):
high cola levels and it'll be good. First one.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I'm sorry, Look, you are a triath and coach, but
I'm going to ask you for the weather forecast. So
we've got dry conditions for a while.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
That's that's my understanding is that it's going to be nice.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yet, what time are you told.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
We had We got to report through about four o'clock
this morning local time, which we knew was coming. They
do a meeting of three thirty am in the morning
here and then report on the water quality and what
other things any other.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Might occur o'clock. What local time is the race? When
local time was the race supposed to go? What was
at six o'clock in the morning or seven eight this morning?

Speaker 3 (01:48):
So we had four hours four hours warning.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
You had four hours warning. And Hayden, of course, we
went to bed the night before. He had done all
the dietary preparations. I would have presumed to get ready
for race the next day at four in the morning,
I presume he's still asleep.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
He was still asleep. Yeah, he woke up. He woke
up about five o'clock. As did Dylan McCulloch, and they
came out of their rooms. We've got a small apartment
just close to the race, then you for the night
before the race, so we moved in yesterday afternoon. And
so yeah, they woke up this morning at five and
came out of the room, and I got in the
news and they promptly went back to bed and felt
went back asleep. So they're still in bed to sleep.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Now, Well, how debilitating is this for some of the
most finely tuned bodies on the planet who have spent
four years practicing, eating and working towards a particular day
and a particular race.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, it's funny you say that because Hayden's comment was
I've wasted all these mornings getting up at six am
for an eight am start when I you know, if
it was going to be ten forty five, I would
have got up later to all my training sessions. So,
I mean, I think one of the key things about
being an a lead athlete is that you're adaptable and
you're able to take these kind of things in your
stride and not let it bother you. So, you know,

(02:59):
I'm sure both these two boys here will be We'll
be doing that for the rest of the day and
then we'll just get ready. We have to go again tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
This is a fascinating story, but with terribly late I've
got one big question for you. Would you be shocked
if the race was postponed again? And what would happen
if it becomes a dew athlete. How do you feel
about that?

Speaker 3 (03:18):
I wouldn't be shocked. I'd be disappointed if it was
cancer again. We're postponed again. They do have some other
dates later in the in the schedule for the Olympics
to run the event if that's if it comes to that,
so and the last resorters it turns into a duathlon. Personally,
I think the juathalone would suit Hayden really well. Like
he's a real, very strong runner and he better expose

(03:40):
Alex Ye on the bike on a kind of one
on one match up almost so we've actually seen him
really well. But no one wants to win an Olympic juathlon. No,
this is right, I'll.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Have an asterix becide it so well said, mate, Look,
pass on all our condolences to Hayden and you and
all the team and in fact all the competitors. It's
terrible that you're having to put that up with all
of this, but as always all of New Zealand, which
is who are the very best of like?

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Go well mate, yeah, thanks very much, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Thank you for more from Hither Duplasy Alan Drive.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
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