American superstar Taylor Knibb put in a flawless performance to win the season opener on the 2026 T100 Triathlon World Tour in Australia. She managed to hold off a very strong first showing on the T100 series by Jessica Fullagar from Great Britain, while Switzerland’s Imogen Simmonds crossed the finish line in third place.
Surfers Paradise gave an epic setting for the first swim of the new T100 season. The bustling heart of Australia’s Gold Coast drawing an excited crowd as the athletes took their marks, before sprinting towards the ocean in a wild looking start.
T100 debutant Jess Fullagar (GBR) embraced the surf, to follow uber swimmer Sara Perez Sala (ESP) in the lead group on the first lap. But with the swell bobbing the athletes up and down, sighting was challenging and the Spanish star went awry at the start of the second lap and lost time to leaders, rejoining the race in the third pack. This left the door open for Fullagar who used the surf well to make her way back into the shore and into T1 on her own, completing the swim in 26:04. Imogen Simmonds (SUI) was five seconds back with Australian Danielle De Francesco in third a further second down. Taylor Knibb (USA) was 7th, 36 seconds down on the leader and Australian favourite Ellie Salthouse was 15th, a full 2:25 down.
Fullagar was first out onto the bike leading her first ever T100 race, quickly into her work and in a ‘beautiful’ aero position according to Belinda Grainger on commentary. She was also on a borrowed bike from compatriot Lucy Byram, who missed out on a start in this race due to a hip injury.
Over 8 laps of a 10km relatively flat, fast and sweeping bike course Taylor Knibb showed why she’s the top ranked biker. ‘Flawless’ was how Grainger described her performance on two wheels. Knibb worked hard to catch Fullagar gradually, eking out the seconds on each lap before passing the Brit at the 47km mark on lap 5 and going on to extend her lead to just over a minute, having started a minute down. The American averaging 42.04 kph according to the T100 live race data.
Meanwhile, Simmonds continued to push in third, with German Bianca Bogen in fourth and followed by Sala, Van De Kaay (NZL) and then Ellie Salthouse (AUS) in sixth, coming into T2 6:32 down on the leader.
Knibb was into T2 just over a minute up on Fullagar. She put socks on, ice pack down tri suit and was off at 4pm local time, with the temperature around 26 degree celsius and 70% humidity. Having stepped up from short distance racing, this was running into the unknown for Fullagar, after 80km on the bike in a pro race for the first time. But she looked sprightly out of T2 and looked light on her feet. Simmonds started her run 2:58 down on the leader.
With many expecting Knibb to run away, it was Fullagar who was faster to start with, running an average pace of 3:30 min/km or 5:38 min/mile, closing to 48 seconds on lap 3 of 6.
But Knibb responded and kept the gap hovering around one minute to win her first race of what promises to be a busy season. She takes $50,000 for the win and 35 points towards this season’s T100 Race To Qatar. Fullagar takes 29 points and $40,000, with Simmonds helping herself to 26 points and $30,000.