New World #1 Sam Long leads the men into T100 San Francisco
American star enjoying stellar season and becomes first American to top the PTO World Ranking
Photo by:
Sean Haffey/ Getty Images for Ironman
He’s either finished first (Ironman 70.3 Pucon and St. George) or second (T100 Miami, 70.3 Oceanside, T100 Singapore) at every race he’s done this year, so it’s hardly a surprise that American Sam Long has surged to the top of the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) World Ranking. Fresh off his impressive win at Ironman 70.3 St. George, Long will head into the third leg of the T100 Triathlon World Tour in San Francisco wearing race #1 as the top-ranked athlete in the field.
Taylor Knibb to race T100 San Francisco seven weeks out from Olympics
Like the women’s field, which we wrote about yesterday, 16 of the contracted PTO athletes will be lining up in California. That includes Denmark’s Magnus Ditlev, Americans Jason West, Rudy von Berg and four-time Escape from Alcatraz champ Ben Kanute. Olympic favourite Marten Van Riel from Belgium will be taking on his first T100 race, too.
Here’s the full list of  contracted T100 men who have signed up for the race:
- Sam Long (USA)
- Magnus Ditlev (DEN)
- Pieter Heemeryck (BEL)
- Jason West (USA)
- Mathis Margirier (FRA)
- Rudy von Berg (USA)
- David McNamee (GBR)
- Frederic Funk (GER)
- Bradley Weiss (RSA)
- Aaron Royle (AUS)
- Clement Mignon (FRA)
- Rico Bogen (GER)
- Alistair Brownlee (GBR)
- Ben Kanute (USA)
- Marten Van Riel (BEL)
- Javier Gomez (ESP)
The wild card competitors for the race will be announced at a later date, but one would imagine Singapore champ Youri Keulen will be on the list.
Escape from Alcatraz
The T100 race is being run in conjunction with the famous Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon, which has been going since 1981. You can check out Christine Frietchen’s excellent piece on the famous event by clicking on the link below.
What makes the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon one of the sport’s most iconic races?
