Stars fume in costly T100 Dubai triathlon debacle

Murray Wenzel |

Hayden Wilde, who won Olympic silver in Paris, was caught up in a costly, chaotic T100 Dubai race.
Hayden Wilde, who won Olympic silver in Paris, was caught up in a costly, chaotic T100 Dubai race.

A big-money global triathlon series has become a source of ridicule and bemusement after a number of chaotic and costly mix-ups at the penultimate event in Dubai.

New Zealand’s dual Olympic medallist Hayden Wilde, as well as fellow race leaders Mathis Margirier of France and Belgian Marten Van Riel all completed an extra 8km circuit on the bike leg of Saturday’s race.

Then at least 10 men ran one lap too few, with Germany’s Mika Noodt crossing the line first mistakenly believing he had won the $USD25,000 winner’s prize.

Red-faced organisers, who blamed a faulty lap counter, eventually awarded the race to American Morgan Pearson given he was leading after the seventh running lap, which was the last-known correct timing.

Wilde, who had won all five events he’d entered this year and is the runaway series leader entering next month’s grand final, finished eighth while Van Riel was 13th.

The T100 – a 2km swim, 80km bike and 18km run – is overseen by the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) and offers a $200,000 prize for the overall series winner.

It’s a relatively new tour to rival long-distance triathlon giants Ironman that has also temped Wilde and others away from the sport’s shorter format in between Olympic cycles.

Wilde was visibly furious during and after the race, while Van Riel wrote that the “real winner” was PTO’s direct competitor.

“I will give a bigger update on the whole situation later, but I am honestly quite devastated right now,” Van Riel wrote on social media.

“I not only lost 10s of thousands of dollars, but I mostly feel let down by an organisation I tried supporting and sacrificed a big part of my season for.

“I think the professional can go and we can just call it the ‘triathlon organisation’ from today onwards.”

The T100 debuted in Wollongong earlier this year and will hold an event on the Gold Coast in March next year.

Australian women’s star Ashleigh Gentle, fourth in the standings following victory at the French Riveria leg earlier this season, opted not to race in Dubai as she instead targets the season-ending Qatar race.

AAP