She had to fight for it more than in her previous three T100 victories, but Taylor Knibb just won the Grand Final in Dubai. The American athlete, who was already considered the favorite, also wins the world title, $25,000 and the end-of-year bonus of another $210,000.
During the swim it was Spain’s Sara Perez Sala who recorded the fastest time (26:31 minutes), followed by big names such as Taylor Spivey, Taylor Knibb, Julie Derron, Flora Duffy, Imogen Simmonds and Ashleigh Gentle. On the bike, Derron even briefly took the lead, but soon Knibb moved up to the front, basically exactly as everyone expected as well.
Because of Knibb’s fast pace on the bike, only three women remained in the chase: Derron, Gentle and Simmonds. Remarkably, Knibb did not manage to create a huge lead as fast as ever, as her lead grew only second by second and hovered around ine minute for a very long time.
Only in the final phase of the bike leg did Knibb see her lead grow to eventually 2:45 minutes, and that was much needed, as she knew Gentle and also Derron are particularly good runners and maybe even better runners – at least on paper.
During the run, conditions proved tough – it was hot and the run course also had a few steep climbs – and for a while it looked like Gentle would grab the win. In the first kilometers she quickly made up time and after 12 kilometers she was closing in to just 45 seconds behind. That was also the moment almost everyone took Gentle as the winner into account.
Yet that did not happen, because it was also the moment when Gentle began to struggle, lost pace and saw Knibb expanding her lead again. The Australian struggled and even had to take a walk for a moment. Knibb, on the other hand, did not hesitate, looked strong and ran unabated toward the finish line.
Knibb won the race in 3:29:17. In the last kilometer, the tired Gentle was passed by Derron, who finished second in 3:31:08. Gentle finished third in 3:31:42.
Top five T100 end-of-year rankings:
- Taylor Knibb
- Ashleigh Gentle
- Julie Derron
- Kat Matthews
- Flora Duffy
