The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) have announced that its inaugural T100 Triathlon World Championship Final will now take place in Dubai on 16-17 November, 2024.

That event had been scheduled to be the seventh race of the series, with the T100 ‘World Championship Final’ slated for the 29-30 November in a ‘to be confirmed’ location. That had long been rumoured to be Oman but the planned eight-event programme will now be capped at seven.

‘Locations not being quite ready’

Explaining the change, PTO CEO Sam Renouf said: “While we originally planned for an eight-race series in 2024 and had been exploring some exciting potential venues, a combination of lining up all the approvals and those locations not being quite ready to hold an event befitting the T100 Triathlon World Championship Final made the decision to move the final to Dubai an easy one in the end.

“It has always been our ambition to crown our first T100 Triathlon World Champions in a spectacular race at an iconic location.

“Given the huge interest we’ve seen in Dubai from both the local and international triathlon community, we have decided that Dubai will give the first year of the T100 Triathlon World Tour the series finale it deserves.

“It will be our largest event of the year, with over 10,000 participants set to compete across a range of distances and individual disciplines. Combining that scale with the stunning backdrop of Meydan racecourse and the Dubai skyline, means we’ll be finishing our inaugural year with a bang.”

In addition to crowning the first T100 World Champions, which are officially recognised by the sports international governing body, World Triathlon, the Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final will determine the final split of the record $7 million USD prize fund, with $250k being awarded at the race, and a further $2 million for the season-long competition.

Olympic athletes still in contention

But the change in plan does raise a number of questions, so here’s what we know so far…

In light of the series now being seven races, the obligated number of races for contracted T100 athletes has been reduced from five to four, plus the Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final.

For athletes who competed at the Olympics – who were required to complete three T100 races and the Final, but who have not yet competed in a T100 race – they will be able to take their average score from two completed T100 races and count it as a ‘third’ race ahead of the new Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final on 16-17 November.

The two remaining races before Dubai are Ibiza at the end of this month and then Lake Las Vegas in mid-October.

That means the likes of Flora Duffy and Taylor Spivey are still in contention on the women’s side despite not yet having raced in T100 this year. And Taylor Knibb very much so after her T100 San Francisco victory.

On the men’s side there are no contracted athletes who raced the Olympics but are yet to take part in T100 – Marten Van Riel for example was also a winner in San Francisco.

Athletes score 35 points for first place down to one point for 20th place at each race, while the Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final will have increased points – 55 down to four.

Each athlete’s best three T100 race scores plus the Final will count towards the inaugural women’s and men’s T100 World Champions.