Youri Keulen dominates T100 Singapore as Sam Long goes from last to second
Dutch athlete dominates in hot, humid conditions
Photo by:
PTO/ James Mitchell
He made it look very controlled, but his trip to the hospital after the finish assured us it was anything but! Dutch T100 wildcard Youri Keulen just missed the podium at T100 Miami, but followed that up with the race of his career as he took the win the second race of the T100 Triathlon World Tour in Singapore today.
While temperatures were a bit lower for the men compared to the women’s race yesterday (31 C vs 34 C), the humidity was higher, making it a challenging day for the men competing.
The usual suspects were at the front after the 2 km swim in the 30.9 C water as Aaron Royle led a group that included Aussie Josh Amberger, Great Britain’s Alistair Brownlee and New Zealand’s Kyle Smith. American Sam Long was last out of the water, more than four minutes down and, just since that wasn’t enough of a deficit, promptly got a 30 second penalty for leaving equipment outside his box as he headed out on the bike.
Keulen quickly went to the front and stayed there through the rest of the ride, hitting T2 with a lead of a minute over a chase group that included Smith, Mika Noodt (GER), Â Smith and Brownlee. Brownlee would touch the dismount line, getting a 30 second penalty.
Long would hit T2 3:20 down and in eighth place. The American would move up to second place, then back to fourth behind Belgium’s Pieter Heemeryck and Smith after serving his penalty at the start of the final run lap, only to quickly move back to second again.
There was no touching Keulen, though, who cruised through to a convincing win (3:21:01)before collapsing at the finish line from the huge effort. Long would take second in 3:22:38, followed by Heemeryck (3:23:30), with Scotland’s David McNamee running his way to fourth (3:26:03) ahead of Smith (3:26:57). It was another tough day for two-time Olympic champ Alistair Brownlee who managed to run his way into the top three at one point, but would be slowed to a walk after serving his 30-second penalty before eventually dropping out.
You can see the full pro results from T100 Singapore here.
