As the Dubai dust settled on one of the most chaotic and crazy triathlon races in the history of the sport, the athletes caught up in Saturday’s confusion have started to lift the lid with regard to what really happened on a desperately difficult day for the T100 World Tour event.
In farcical scenes, three riders ended up taking what seemed to be an extra lap on the bike course, while it is understood that at least 13 runners were directed to the finish line having only completed seven of the eight laps.
The Professional Triathletes Organisation and World Triathlon issued a short statement blaming issues with ‘lap counting boards and timings’, and after hours of delay due to ‘athlete protests’, Morgan Pearson (USA) was announced the winner, with Mika Noodt (GER) in second and Gregory Barnaby (ITA) in third.
Athletes asked to vote on the outcome
Frenchman Vincent Luis, who was named in fifth place, later revealed how the PTO had asked the athletes to vote on whether they agreed with the final decision over the placings, which had been determined after the 7th run lap – the last known correct timing stage.
Britain’s Will Draper, who finished 11th, also took to Instagram in a bid to try and shed some light on the day’s events, stating that the 13 seven-lap runners were, at one stage, facing disqualification from the race, but that the four who ran the eighth lap – Pearson, Barnaby, Jason West (USA) and Jake Birtwhistle (AUS) – argued against it.
It was all too much for Belgian T100 reigning champion Marten Van Riel, who was the first, and most vociferous, to vent his frustration as he admitted to feeling ‘devastated’ at being let down by ‘an organisation I tried supporting’.
Together with Hayden Wilde (NZL) and Frenchman Mathis Margirier, he had missed the exit for T2 at the end of the bike section and was forced to complete an extra 8km lap before joining the rest of the field on the run. It was an incident that he said had cost him ‘10s of thousands of dollars’.
Scathing attack from Van Riel
His scathing attack on Instagram hailed the day’s big winner as the IRONMAN Pro Series and suggested that the PTO could drop the word ‘Professional’ from their name and just be called the ‘Triathlon Organisation’ from now on.
No official explanation has been given for why the trio missed the exit, but it was clear that Wilde, in particular, was extremely unhappy with the situation, as he remonstrated with officials after crossing the finish line and is also understood to have been one of those who lodged a protest.
Draper added in his Instagram post that officials were confident this issue was simply down to rider error and did not, therefore, have any impact on the final placings. It remains to be seen what Wilde has to say, as he must now focus on next month’s finals in Qatar, where he remains the hot favourite to seal the title.
Another who is thought to have lodged a protest is the eventual winner, Pearson, who was not one of those sent to the finish line early and continued on to complete his eighth lap, believing he was set for an emphatic victory, only to make the final turn and see that many of his rivals had already finished.
Writing on his Instagram account, he said: “In the end I won @t100triathlon Dubai 😅. There were mistakes made by race organisers and athletes which definitely helped me get the win, but I think it is important to remember we are just people, and everyone makes mistakes sometimes (of course, that’s easy for me to say because I benefited).
“Regardless – I am excited for another opportunity to race in a month at the road to Qatar because I feel like yesterday was my best @t100triathlon from an individual standpoint, and I believe I can be even better next month.”
Noodt accepts ‘relegation’ to second place
The man who initially crossed the line first was Noodt, but he accepted that being ‘relegated’ to second was a justified decision.
“Craziest race I ever had, and the most confusing couple of post-race hours,” he said on his Instagram account after the final positions had been confirmed. “There was a protest going on, and there’s another protest going on with the bike situation.
“I’m very sorry for what happened to Hayden, Marten, and Mathis; they were clearly stronger than me today. So very sad about the outcome of that. It’s pretty mixed emotions. Professionally, I’m obviously super happy with the second place. But, personally, I really feel for those three guys.”
He went on to explain what happened as he ended up finishing the race one lap early.
“With three laps to go on the run, I started to ask officials and my supporters how many laps I had left. Just then, the lap counter started to work because it hadn’t worked for the first few laps, and it said I had one left to go,” he said. “I did one more, and it then said, ‘Go finish’. So I went to the finish line. I didn’t run with a watch. I went to the finish line and thought I was in second place behind Morgan, and suddenly, I see the officials getting the tape ready for me, and I was a bit confused.
“Then I thought, okay, yeah, maybe it’s just like they do at Challenge Roth, where the first three guys get the tape. So I was like, okay, might as well grab the tape. And in the moment when I raised the tape, someone on the left told me, ‘You won, you won’. And I’m like, ‘What’s going on here?’, I was completely confused.
“The protests have gone on until now. But now we have a confirmed result, and I’m gonna take the outcome. Crazy day, crazy day out here.”
Lessons must now be learnt
Luis called for calm and for the lessons of a difficult day to be learnt.
“A lot of drama happened yesterday – the 3 race leaders doing an extra lap on the bike and the run lap counter being wrong and telling athletes to go to the finish instead of doing the last lap,” he wrote on Instagram. “@t100triathlon actually asked us to vote and decide what would be the best solution. I am not sure I’ve ever seen any other organisation doing so.
“I believe everyone can make mistakes – athletes and organisers – the most important thing is to learn from them and do better.”
Draper posted his explanation on a T100 Tour post announcing the final placings, responding to many of the messages from followers which were critical of the PTO and the Tour.
“On the run, 13 athletes were deemed to do one lap less at the ‘fault’ of the T100, because a digital screen lap counter said ‘Go to finish’, so the T100 took as much responsibility for this as they could,” he explained.
“As far as I’m aware, it is always the athlete’s responsibility to complete the course, so it should be a DQ, but obviously a lot (including myself) would’ve been extremely disappointed with this, as we just did what we were told when under heat exhaustion.
Great sportsmanship was shown
“I believe the option for 1st-4th to go to the ‘8 lap runners’ and everyone else to get DQ’d was given, but Morgan, Gregory, Jason and Jake were extremely sporting and believed the 7th lap of the run would’ve been the same result as the 8th lap, so it was agreed amongst all athletes and officials for this to be the outcome.
“The 3 riders who rode extra were deemed to have done this at their own fault, which is why the outcome was different.”
He, too, called for a reasoned response to the drama, accepting that people make mistakes.
“T100, Challenge, Ironman, etc, are all good for the sport. It’s run by people, and people can make mistakes. It was clear as an athlete that they were extremely disappointed and did their best to rectify it with input from those who raced,” he added. “A lot of the comments are super negative, but I’d like to thank the 4 guys who did 8 laps of running for their sportsmanship and the organisers for owning their mistake as best they could.
“As an athlete, I want to see the sport grow. T100/PTO is putting money in. I don’t see why triathletes don’t want to see triathlon grow and take this with a little more understanding of a mistake. I’m confident such a public mistake like this will never happen again, which is one benefit of failing and helps this organisation and others grow to be better for the athletes.”
A little light relief
And in amongst all the anger and chaos, there was also room for a little humour as Barnaby expressed his delight in first, making the podium, and second, being able to count.
“Definitely not the way I wanted to make it onto a T100 podium… But I’m happy with my overall performance and for counting the right laps 😂🤪”
It will now be interesting to see what, if anything, the PTO announces in the wake of what has undoubtedly been their toughest ever weekend.
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