Star-studded field for Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

With less than one month to go, the Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final is set to ignite Dubai this November, delivering a high-stakes showdown between the world’s best elite triathletes.

The competition, marking the culmination of the inaugural T100 World Tour, will see an exceptional field of male and female athletes battling for ultimate supremacy in a city renowned for hosting iconic sporting events.

The T100 Triathlon World Tour is a seven-race series, designed to push triathletes to their limits across a mix of iconic global destinations and a unique competition format — a 2km swim, 80km bike, and 18km run.

Throughout the season, athletes have accumulated points across races in Miami, Singapore, San Francisco, London, Ibiza and Las Vegas.

The grand final in Dubai is the last chance for the top PTO World Ranked athletes to win additional points as they vie to be crowned the inaugural T100 World Champion. The sum of each athlete’s three best point-scoring performances across the season plus their score from the Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final will give each athlete’s total score. In addition to crowning the first T100 World Champions, the Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final will determine the final split of the record $7 million prize pot.

Sitting 19 points clear at the top of the men’s field is three-time Olympian, Marten Van Riel. The Belgian claimed his maiden T100 victory earlier this year in a dramatic three-way sprint finish between Kyle Smith and Germany’s Rico Bogen on the iconic ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ course in San Francisco. He followed it up with a spectacular win in Ibiza, becoming the first male two-time T100 champion.

Another world-class performance in Las Vegas earlier this month saw him take silver spot on the podium, securing him pole position in the overall men’s rankings. In his last visit to Dubai, Van Riel won the IRONMAN 70.3 Dubai in 2022 – he’ll be hoping to repeat this success to claim T100 glory next month.

With just five points separating the rest of top five ranked athletes, it’s all to race for. Second place in the rankings is Danish superstar Magnus Ditlev whose ability to dominate the bike leg and hold off his competitors in the run has cemented his reputation as one of the men to beat. Ditlev has had a phenomenal season with victories at both the first leg of the 2024 T100 World Tour event in Miami and Challenge Roth.

Third in the rankings, New Zealand’s Kyle Smith will also toe the line in Dubai. A wildcard into the 2024 T100 series, Smith has proved he deserves his spot in the star-studded line-up following an incredible sprint finish in the San Francisco T100 Triathlon where he was pipped into second place by Marten Van Riel, and another second place finish at the London T100.

Joining them on the start line is fourth-ranked Sam Laidlow from France, who became the youngest man ever to claim the IRONMAN World title in 2023. Laidlow joined the T100 World Tour in 2024, clinching his first victory at the T100 World Tour race in London in April and a silver medal in the Ibiza race last month.