MIAMI – Britain’s India Lee and Denmark’s Magnus Ditlev emerged the first winners of the inaugural T100 long-distance triathlon on March 9 in Miami, beating a highly competitive field of the world’s top triathletes.
The debut race of the new series, staged on a route at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, consisted of a 2km swim in a man-made lake, 80km bike leg on the road course and 18km run on the racetrack’s oval.
The next event of the eight-race programme will take place in Singapore at Marina Bay on April 13 and 14.
Lee, with a time of 3hr 27min 12sec, edged out reigning Ironman world champion and compatriot Lucy Charles-Barclay, who led the swim and bike sections but faltered on the final run to finish 30sec behind in the women’s race.
Holly Lawrence rounded off the all-British podium.
“I knew I had it in me. In my head, it was just a matter of time and to be consistent and sensible in the swim and on the bike,” the 35-year-old Lee said.
“Today was the first time I’ve done a run that I am proud of. I had my coach voice inside my head saying: ‘Don’t go out too hard, it’s better to be steady and consistent’ but I was thinking, ‘I’m going steady but I’m also catching Lucy’.”
Ditlev, 26, clocked a time of 3:09:08 to win the men’s race, 35sec ahead of American Sam Long with Frenchman Mathis Margirier coming in third.
“Great start of the season and I’m super happy to take my first T100 win,” Ditlev said.
“The entire day I felt like I was below the limit, trying to deal with the heat, but towards the end I started pushing more,” he added of going past Briton Alistair Brownlee, who led the run but lost pace and finished fifth.
Each winner took home US$25,000 (S$33,300) from a total race prize fund of US$250,000 as the new series boasts more than US$7 million in prize funds and contracts.
Launched in January by the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) and governing body World Triathlon, the T100 has shorter races than Ironman’s 3.5km swim, 180km bike and 42km run but longer legs than the Olympic distances of 1.5km, 40km, and 10km. REUTERS
