Georgia Taylor-Brown won the women’s T100 race in Dubai on Saturday, finishing in three hours, 35 minutes and 19 seconds to take the lead in the overall series standings.
The victory moves the 32-year-old British triathlete to 96 points, six ahead of Switzerland’s Julie Derron heading into the final event of the season.
Taylor-Brown, a 2020 Olympic silver medallist and former world champion in the shorter Olympic distance, is currently aiming for her first T100 championship title. Her success in the United Arab Emirates follows a string of strong performances earlier this season, including a victory in Pamplona, Spain, in May and a third-place finish in Vancouver, Canada, in August. She also finished third in this season’s World Triathlon Series.
Taylor-Brown secured her second win of the campaign by overtaking the field during the running leg. She established a 30-second advantage just under 4 kilometers into the run before holding off New Zealand’s Nicole van der Kaay at the finish line by 10 seconds. Derron, who took the lead in the overall standings with her own victory in Vancouver, finished third in Dubai, two minutes and seven seconds behind the winner.
The Dubai race is the fourth T100 season event and is the competition's first at Al Mamzar, after two previous editions at Meydan. The course consists of a 2-kilometer swim, an 80-kilometer bike ride, and an 18-kilometer run.
In the men’s race, New Zealander Hayden Wilde secured his third T100 victory of the season, finishing in three hours, 11 minutes and 43 seconds. Smith finished one minute and nine seconds behind, with Germany’s Mika Noodt taking third place.
Wilde’s performance puts him at the maximum 105 points, 42 points clear of Smith in the standings.
The T100 weekend in Dubai continues on Sunday with an amateur 100-kilometer race and a sprint event. More than 3,000 amateur athletes from over 50 nationalities are participating in the weekend’s events. The women’s and men’s seasons will conclude next month at the Grand Final in Doha, Qatar.
