Derron Dominates T100 Dubai, Bedlam in the Men’s Race (Eventually) Puts Pearson on Top

Julie Derron takes T100 Dubai. Photo: PTO

Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) officials endured a tough day at the office today: The T100 Dubai men’s race featured more than a bit of chaos as the three leaders on the bike (Hayden Wilde, Mathis Margirier and Marten Van Riel) all did an extra lap, and then race leader Morgan Pearson (USA) and a few others ended up doing an extra lap of the run. In the end Pearson was declared the winner after “the official result … was determined after the 7th lap, which was the last known timing and follows World Triathlon guidelines.”

The women’s race was calm in comparison as Julie Derron returned to racing after a bike crash that kept her out of Kona to cruise to her second T100 win of the year.

Lap Counting Conundrum

Things got off to a predictable start in the men’s race as Pearson led a group of six that included France’s Vincent Luis, Van Riel (BEL), Jonas Schomburg (GER), Samuel Dickinson (GBR) and Wilhelm Hirsch (GER) out of the water. The chase group was 1:17 down, with Germany’s Mika Noodt leading the group, with Wilde (NZL) and Margirier (FRA) on his heels.

Once on the bike Wilde and Margirier quickly worked their way towards the front of the race, and by the 20 km point of the 80 km bike they were sitting on the back of the lead group led by Pearson and Van Riel. A few kilometres later Van Riel, Wilde and Margirier were starting to pull away from the rest of the group, and by the 30 km point Wilde was in front pushing the pace, with Dickinson trying to hang on at 10 seconds back, while Schomburg was leading the chasers a bit under 30 seconds behind the Kiwi.

Fast forward to the 70 km point and the three leaders were two minutes up on Noodt and Dickinson, with Schomburg just over three minutes behind, Italy’s Gregory Barnaby (last year’s IRONMAN Pro Series champ) sitting in seventh at 3:35 and Pearson and Luis in eighth and ninth, 4:13 behind the leaders.

The three leaders would end up flying past the transition at the end of the bike and end up doing an extra lap of the course. (After he finished, Wilde could be heard on the live coverage saying that the transition was “blocked off” when he rode past.) That suddenly put Dickinson and Noodt at the front of the race, with Pearson just a few minutes behind.

As the top-ranked runner on the T100 circuit this year, it was hardly a surprise that the American would eventually work his way to the front of the race and appeared to be on his way to his first T100 title. By 12 km into the run Pearson was in front, only to have his own lap-counting issue as he seemingly ran an extra lap of the course. The coverage went back and forth between Pearson in the lead and Noodt suddenly coming across the line to take the win. The craziness continued for a few minutes as Pearson and Jason West ran an extra lap of the course, with others coming across the line. As Wilde ran across the line in fifth we got to hear his rant about the transition area being blocked. Shortly after that the results were all removed from the tracker as PTO and World Triathlon officials sought to sort out the final results.

Eventually an announcement was made that because of a technical issue with the lap counting board and timing the race would be determined based on the results after the seventh of eight laps of the run.

That gave Pearson the win ahead of Noodt and Barnaby. West, who like Pearson had run an extra lap, ended up in fourth.

Podium celebrations: Noodt, Pearson and Barnaby. Photo: PTO

	Name	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	Overall
1		25:03:00	1:07	1:49:41(11)	0:48	49:39(2)	3:06:17
	MORGAN PEARSON
2		26:19(7)	1:06	1:45:28(5)	0:52	53:09(9)	3:06:53
	MIKA NOODT
3		26:23(10)	1:11	1:46:56(7)	0:55	52:19(6)	3:07:41
	GREGORY BARNABY
4		26:27(14)	1:22	1:49:38(10)	0:47	50:06(3)	3:08:18
	JASON WEST
5		25:04(2)	1:09	1:49:41(12)	0:51	51:59(5)	3:08:43
	VINCENT LUIS
6		25:10(5)	1:02	1:46:34(6)	0:50	55:36(16)	3:09:09
	SAMUEL DICKINSON
7		25:08(4)	1:07	1:48:35(8)	0:57	54:01(13)	3:09:46
	JONAS SCHOMBURG
8		26:20(8)	0:59	1:43:04(2)	11:31	49:19:00	3:11:10
	HAYDEN WILDE
9		26:27(15)	1:21	1:48:36(9)	1:08	53:42(11)	3:11:12
	FILIPE AZEVEDO
10		26:27(16)	1:13	1:50:13(14)	1:03	52:56(8)	3:11:49
	PIETER HEEMERYCK
11		30:38(18)	1:19	1:45:02(4)	0:46	54:27(14)	3:12:10
	WILL DRAPER
12		26:25(12)	1:26	1:50:53(15)	0:52	53:47(12)	3:13:21
	GUILLEMMONTIEL MORENO
13		25:06(3)	1:16	1:44:12(3)	11:28	51:22(4)	3:13:22
	MARTEN VAN RIEL
14		28:46(17)	1:17	1:50:03(13)	1:01	53:19(10)	3:14:24
	MIKE PHILLIPS
15		26:21(9)	1:14	1:42:50	11:38	52:44(7)	3:14:44
	MATHIS MARGIRIER
16		25:11(6)	1:14	1:51:06(16)	0:48	57:59(17)	3:16:16
	WILHELM HIRSCH
17		26:24(11)	1:19	1:53:20(17)	1:03	55:01(15)	3:17:05
	JAKE BIRTWHISTLE
DNF		26:25(13)	1:31	2:06:57(18)	1:12	–:–	–:–
	MARC DUBRICK

Derron’s Day

Photo: PTO

The women’s race was pretty much drama free (especially in comparison to the men’s) as last year’s Olympic silver medalist continued her more-than-successful move to long-distance racing with an impressive return after a bike crash had kiboshed her Kona debut last month.

Great Britain’s Jessica Learmonth led a group of women out of the water in 27:03 that included American Taylor Spivey, fellow Brits Kate Waugh, Holly Lawrence and Georgia Taylor-Brown, along with Spaniard Sara Perez Sala and Derron.

From there it wasn’t long before Derron, Waugh and Learmonth had pulled clear of the rest of the field. Derron would hit T2 in first, 23 seconds up on Learmonth and another three ahead of Waugh. Taylor-Brown, Lawrence and Perez Sala were well back in fourth. fifth and sixth.

Out on the run course Derron was unstoppable and cruised to the win. Waugh made quick work pulling away from Learmonth, but was never able to close the gap on the Swiss star. Learmonth hung tough for the final spot on the podium, with Taylor-Brown finishing fourth for the second weekend in a row (her position at last weekend’s 70.3 world championship) and Lawrence rounding out the top five.

	Name	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	Overall
1		27:35(7)	1:10	1:55:05	0:39	1:03:22	3:27:50
	JULIE DERRON
2		27:06(3)	1:21	1:55:31(3)	0:49	1:06:18(2)	3:31:03
	KATE WAUGH
3		27:03:00	1:21	1:55:28(2)	0:48	1:09:09(6)	3:33:46
	JESSICA LEARMONTH
4		27:34(5)	1:26	1:58:56(7)	1:06	1:06:55(3)	3:35:55
	GEORGIA TAYLOR-BROWN
5		27:34(6)	1:16	1:59:36(10)	1:06	1:08:13(5)	3:37:42
	HOLLY LAWRENCE
6		27:05(2)	1:33	2:01:50(13)	0:43	1:07:24(4)	3:38:33
	TAYLOR SPIVEY
7		29:42(10)	1:31	1:58:11(4)	0:54	1:09:22(7)	3:39:38
	LISA PERTERER
8		29:46(12)	1:26	1:58:46(6)	1:09	1:09:57(8)	3:41:02
	LIZZIE RAYNER
9		29:45(11)	1:31	2:01:56(14)	1:01	1:10:47(9)	3:44:59
	HANNE DE VET
10		29:41(9)	1:29	1:59:34(9)	1:15	1:13:31(13)	3:45:26
	MEGAN MCDONALD
11		34:15(16)	1:27	1:59:28(8)	0:53	1:11:25(10)	3:47:26
	DIEDE DIEDERIKS
12		31:45(13)	1:23	2:00:40(12)	0:58	1:13:30(12)	3:48:15
	KAIDI KIVIOJA
13		31:48(14)	1:22	2:03:03(15)	0:57	1:11:47(11)	3:48:55
	LEANA BISSIG
14		29:38(8)	1:25	2:03:19(17)	1:04	1:15:42(16)	3:51:06
	LOTTIE LUCAS
15		31:51(15)	1:28	2:03:17(16)	0:54	1:14:30(15)	3:51:58
	JENNY JENDRYSCHIK
16		34:18(17)	1:37	1:58:20(5)	1:09	1:19:27(17)	3:54:49
	REBECCA ANDERBURY
17		34:20(18)	1:42	2:06:02(18)	1:09	1:13:48(14)	3:56:58
	LISA-MARIA DORNAUER
DNF		27:06(4)	1:17	2:00:11(11)	1:21	–:–	–:–
	SARA PÉREZ SALA

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