Taylor Knibb, Marten Van Riel take T100 Dubai crowns
The inaugural T100 World Championship Final was as exciting as expected, with big wins from the pre-race favourites
Photo by:
Kevin Mackinnon
The first-ever T100 Triathlon World Championship Final took place in Dubai over the weekend, and it delivered some tremendous racing. American Taylor Knibb continued her long-distance dominance, winning her fourth T100 race in as many starts this season, and Belgium’s Marten Van Riel made it three for four in T100 races in 2024. With their wins, Knibb and Van Riel both locked up the overall titles for the T100 season.
The Women’s Race
The race started at Dubai’s Sunrise Beach with a 2K swim. Spain’s Sara Perez Sala was first out of the water in 26:31, but she was followed closely by American Taylor Spivey (26:34) and her compatriot Knibb (26:36). The top seven women were all relatively close after the first leg of the race, with Flora Duffy and Ashleigh Gentle also in the mix after exiting the water.
Heading onto the 80K bike course, every woman had one goal: keep within striking distance of Knibb. The technical Dubai course helped slow Knibb down a bit, but she was still able to catch and pass all of the women in front of her in swift fashion. Gentle and Switzerland’s Julie Derron worked together on the bike as they tried to keep Knibb in their sights, but after 65 kilometres of riding, the gap between them and Knibb was more than a minute and a half.
In the closing kilometres of the bike, Knibb showed why she has been the woman to beat all season long, flying into T2 and extending her lead up to 2:46. Although this was a significant gap between herself and the chasers, it was the closest that Knibb had been to second place after the bike in a T100 race all year. It would come down to the final 18K run to see if any of the women trailing Knibb could muster a comeback.
Derron was the first chaser to leave T2, but she was quickly caught by Gentle. After a third of the run was complete, Gentle had knocked more than a minute off of Knibb’s lead, sitting just 1:35 back with 12 kilometres to go. At the halfway mark, the gap continued to tighten, with Knibb leading by just over a minute. With five kilometres left in the run, Gentle was just 50 seconds back, but that was as close as she could get to Knibb. Soon after, the heat and her chase effort got to her, and she was forced to walk. This left Knibb safe at the front, another T100 win well within her reach.
Back behind the race for first, Duffy threw down the fastest run of the day with a 1:03:32 split. This lifted her from 10th place off the bike to fourth overall. Derron eventually passed Gentle, who held on for third. Knibb took the win in a final time of 3:29:17, just under two minutes ahead of second place.
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The Men’s Race
The men raced on Sunday, and Australia’s Aaron Royle got the event off to a hot start with a 24:36 swim split. He didn’t have much room to breathe as he entered T1, with multiple athletes right on his heels. Alistair Brownlee and Van Riel were right there with Royle as they all hopped on their bikes for the 80K ride.
The bike leg of the men’s race was much tighter than that of the women’s, with multiple athletes in contention throughout the ride. Frenchman Mathis Margirier took the lead early on in the bike, but he had several men with him, including Van Riel and Brownlee. Heading into T2, a group of six men were in a battle for first place. Unfortunately for Brownlee, he was forced to slow his momentum in T2 and stop to pick up a fallen bike shoe to avoid a penalty. This let Van Riel, Germany’s Rico Bogen and New Zealander Kyle Smith break away at the head of the race.
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This trio stayed together for much of the first half of the run, but with 10 kilometres to go, Van Riel dropped the hammer. He ran away from Smith, but Bogen managed to hold on, sticking with the Belgian. After this move, Brownlee began tracking Smith down, his eyes on a podium finish.
With just over two kilometres to go, Van Riel made another surge, and this time Bogen couldn’t respond. This was the decisive move, and Van Riel flew to the win in 3:09:17. Bogen finished 22 seconds back, securing a second-place result. The fourth-fastest run split of the day saw Brownlee overtake Smith, giving him his first T100 podium finish.
For full results from the T100 finale, click here.