The USA’s Morgan Pearson added a first T100 Triathlon victory to his Olympic palmares by running to a dramatic victory at the Dubai T100 Triathlon, tackling the heat and challenging race dynamics – as well as navigating a timing issue on the run and taking advantage of three leading athletes who did an extra bike lap.
Leading after the 2km swim, the American limited his losses with a strong performance over the 80km bike. As race favourites – series leader Hayden Wilde of New Zealand and Belgium’s Marten Van Riel – accidentally continued onto an unnecessary additional bike leg, Pearson left T2 in 4th place and in contention for the win.
With the tremendous foot speed that helped Team USA secure two Olympic mixed relay triathlon medals, Pearson stormed into first place and the victory despite more lap-counting confusion for athletes on the run.
Due to technical issues with the lap counting board and timing, some athletes completed 7 rather than 8 run laps, leaving the official result for the men’s race determined after the 7th lap – the last known official timing point – which followed World Triathlon guidelines. The Competition Jury also dismissed an athlete protest on the bike leg after Hayden Wilde, Mathis Margirier and Marten Van Riel missed T2 and did an extra bike lap.
Germany’s Mika Noodt underlined his astounding consistency with his third second-place performance of the 2025 T100 season while Italy’s Gregory Barnaby came home in third place.
The top of the T100 Race To Qatar standings remains the same, with Wilde taking a perfect four-win score of 140 points into the Qatar T100 Triathlon World Championships, which take place on 12 December. Second to fourth remain the same with Belgium’s Jelle Geens, Noodt and Germany’s Rico Bogen maintaining their positions while Pearson’s victory saw the American leap 10 places to 5th.
HOW THE RACE UNFOLDED
Reading the currents perfectly, Vincent Luis (FRA) coursed through 2km swim, driving a front group – including Morgan Pearson (USA), Marten Van Riel (BEL), Jonas Schomburg (GER) and Sam Dickinson (GBR) – away from the rest of the field.
Distancing race favourites Hayden Wilde (NZL) and Mika Noodt (GER) by over a minute, Pearson led out of the water and once onto the 80km bike course, the American shared the work with Dickinson and Van Riel as the race rolled towards the iconic Meydan race course.
If the plan was to escape the seemingly unstoppable Wilde, it was quickly thwarted – the Kiwi was at the front and dictating terms by 20km in.
As the bike wore on, the trio of Wilde, Mathis Margirier (FRA) and Van Riel pulled away, eking out over 2 minutes to Noodt and Dickinson as the bike neared its conclusion.
Then: catastrophe for the frontrunners as Wilde continued past transition, leading Margirier and Van Riel onto an additional – and unrequired – bike lap.
That left a bemused Dickinson to enter T2 first followed shortly by Noodt with Gregory Barnaby (ITA) 1:40 back in 3rd. As the temperatures rose, the ever consistent and capable Noodt took the lead at 8km – but Pearson was up to 3rd and running fastest on course. Behind, Barnaby was running strong while Dickinson faded.
Overhauling Noodt with 5km to go, Pearson – the American star twice an Olympic mixed-team relay silver medallist – surged on towards the finish.
In a challenging turn of events due to technical issues with the lap counting board and timing, some athletes completed 7 rather than 8 run laps meaning the official result for the Dubai T100 men’s race was determined after the 7th lap, which was the last known timing point and follows World Triathlon guidelines.
That put Pearson on top with his first ever T100 victory, clocking a time of 3:06:17 to take $25,000 and 35 points, moving himself up 10 places in the T100 Race to Qatar standings from 15th to 5th.
Noodt was 2nd for the 3rd time this season, taking $17,000 and bettering his series tally by 3 points.
Barnaby secured 3rd place and $13,000, holding strong to his 10th place spot in the T100 Race To Qatar standings.
Jason West (USA) ran up from 9th to 4th while Luis rounded out the top-5 with his best T100 finish to date.
