Mario Mola of Spain picked up where he left off in 2015, winning the opening race of the 2016 WTS season at Abu Dhabi after winning last season’s finale, the Grand Final at Chicago.

Mola left the swim near the back of the pack and then, to add insult it injury, incurred a 15 second penalty for leaving his equipment outside his personal box. But after the field carefully navigated a technical bike course, Mola worked his way up to join a huge lead pack coming into T2. Mola then jetted to a 10-second lead ahead of top chasers Richard Murray of South Africa, Joao Silva of Portugal, and fellow Spaniard Fernando Alarza on the first of four laps of the 10k run.

Mola then decided to serve his penalty halfway through the run and reentered the race a few meters behind the trio. On his way to a race-best 30:48 10k run, Mola blasted past the contenders in a kilometer and arrived at the finish with a 15-seconds advantage over runner-up Murray (31:09 run) and 29 seconds on 3rd-place finisher Silva (31:12 run).

With a 1:46:39 finish Mola thus defended his 2015 WTS win at Abu Dhabi and demonstrated that he will be a formidable foe at Rio for early favorites who did not race at Abu Dhabi - Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee of Great Britain and countryman Javier Gomez, 5-time World Champion and 2012 Olympic silver medalist.

“Things couldn’t have got much harder today,” Mola told ITU Media. “It’s very hot outside, which makes it very tough. I didn't swim great (his 18:15 split was 36 seconds behind swim leader Henri Schoeman of South Africa), but I was able to get on the front of the bike and then when they called me for the penalty I imagined it was going to be a bad day… But when I had those 15 seconds I thought that was the time to stop and get back into the pack again.”

With a 4th-best 31:20 run, Alarza took 4th, 9 seconds back of Silva and rising Mexican star Crisanto Grajales took 5th, 10 seconds back of Alarza. Dmitry Polyanskiy of Russia took 6th, 5 seconds back of Grajales and Ryan Sissons of New Zealand secured an Olympic slot with his 7th place finish, 8 seconds back of the Russian.

The day started with an emotional ceremony with the French competitors laying flowers in tribute to their beloved late teammate Laurent Vidal.

WTS Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
March 5, 2015
S 1.5k / B 40k / R 10k

Results

Elite Men

1. Mario Mola (ESP) 1:46:39
2. Richard Murray (RSA) 1:46:54
3. Joao Silva (POR) 1:47:08
4. Fernando Alarza (ESP) 1:47:17
5. Crisanto Grajales (MEX) 1:47:27
6. Dmitry Polyanskiy (RUS) 1:47:32
7. Ryan Sissons (NZL) 1:47:40
8. Ryan Bailie (AUS) 1:47:42
9. Kyle Jones (CAN) 1:47:44
10. Tyler Mislawchuk (CAN) 1:47:47
46. Jason West (USA) 1:50:30
49. Joe Maloy (USA) 1:51:11
DNF Jarrod Shoemaker (USA)