T100 London – on the ground
In my role on the Athlete Board of the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO), I was fortunate to be able to travel to London to be on the ground for the T100 event back in July. On the Thursday prior we had a Board Meeting, and so I was then able to watch and enjoy some fantastic racing by both the women and the men.
London was the fourth race in the T100 series, and half way with three races and The Grand Final left.
On the women’s side Ashleigh Gentle is cementing herself at the top of the rankings, with two wins, Singapore and now London. She’s 25 points ahead of the scramble for second. However, now the Olympics are over, we should see Taylor Knibb, Taylor Spivey and Flora Duffy taking to the start line at the next few races. Knibb showed in San Francisco how good she is taking the win, Gentle finishing in fifth, with the colder conditions proving a little trickier for her, as well as Knibb’s just incredible ability.
For the men, it’s a lot closer. Ten points separating the top four athletes and two of those in the top four are Wild Card Athletes – Kyle Smith (2nd), and Youri Keulen (4th), both also Parcours athletes (just saying ha ha)
So, to London. The host of an impressive Olympics in 2012 (better than Paris 2024 in my opinion but then I am a little biased – but that’s another blog). Iconic London sites, Buckingham Palace, The Mall, Big Ben, The London Eye… so many backdrops that would be TV Gold, and in keeping with what the PTO are wanting to achieve - Iconic locations that attract viewers and age groupers. Sadly, for this year, the T100 London was located out at the Excel Centre. Whilst the Excel is a fantastic venue, housing indoor transition zones and the finish, which made for a cauldron of noise from the fans that had come to watch, the location isn’t exactly iconic London. Additionally, so much construction and road works being carried out in the area made it tricky to navigate day to day and for the races, and I felt I was living on a building site. However, if you were an Age Grouper racing the T100 distance on Sunday morning, you were the lucky ones who had a two lap course, taking athletes into the centre of London, past some of those iconic sights. But as the PTO prefer shorter lapped courses, for the T100 Pros, there were not able to travel that far, instead completing 8 x 10km laps, with a very industrial backdrop, and less than good road conditions. (London, I also believe only allows roads to be closed on early Sunday morning, so scheduling of all the races would have been tricky, if the Pros were to venture into the centre too.) Whilst, it would have been great viewing to see the Pros racing past The London Eye, I’m happy the Age Groupers got to have that experience at least.
It was a great event, the PTO seem to be on the right track in creating a series and format that can grow over the years, and bring the best of the best short course athletes together. A step between the Olympics athletes and the middle distance experts.
The T100 is an exciting format, and we are witnessing some fantastic performances and athletes racing. Sadly, I do think some athletes are taking a little liberty, by just turning up putting minimum focus to get the job done and pick up their pay cheque, back to backing with other races that they are prioritising over a paid contract for a series. I get it, in some ways, it’s the first year of a new series, and sponsors and industry still want the IRONMAN races and World Champs, so until T100 establishes itself and shows what it can do as a series, it will be a struggle. So perhaps some changes will have to happen going into 2025. Also, athletes are chasing the money, trying to do everything, you could say being greedy. Yet again, in some ways I understand. Our sport doesn’t have a lot of money, the T100 and IRONMAN Pro Series have brought more money into the game, so naturally athletes want to have a piece of it, all of it, and now!
Anyway, back to London – It was also great to catch up with the Parcours team – Dov and Amy, as it’s not very often I’m back in the UK, and always value face to face catch ups and it was also fab to watch Kyle and Youri in the men’s race as Parcours athletes, and Wild Cards! Particularly Kyle who as always put on a really great race and I’m excited for him challenging the contracted athletes for the rest of the year, and seeing if he can take the spoils!
Next up is the T100 Ibiza, just one week after the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice. This will obviously impact the women’s race more than the men (Kona still another month away). But it’s great to see both Kyle and Youri get wild cards again for this race!
