The past few hours in Dubai are likely to go down in history as highly controversial – and at the very least, remarkable – but in the end, it is American Morgan Pearson who has been officially awarded the victory at the T100. This decision now seems the only fair one, as roughly ten athletes ran a shorter course than required, leaving Pearson as one of the few to complete the correct distance.
Earlier today, the race unfolded in a strikingly unusual way: Pearson initially took the lead in the T100 Dubai, but suddenly, Mika Noodt – who had been in second – crossed the finish line first. Close behind came Vincent Luis and Samuel Dickinson, while Pearson only came in eleventh. What made the situation even more extraordinary was Pearson’s reaction: he was surprised to see ten athletes already at the finish line, fully convinced he had already won.
That, however, was not the case. Initial assumptions suggested that Pearson – and, for example, Gregory Barnaby, who finished third – had run an extra lap. GPS data quickly revealed the opposite: it was the other athletes who had run too short a distance, completing fifteen kilometers instead of the required eighteen.
The decisive confusion followed an equally bizarre bike incident. Hayden Wilde, Marten van Riel, and Mathis Margirier failed to enter T2 at the end of the bike leg, completing an extra lap instead. This misstep cost them minutes and any realistic shot at a top placement. Afterwards, these athletes complained that T2 had been closed prematurely and criticized the organization for its lack of professionalism. No adjustments were made in response to these complaints.
For Pearson, however, the day ended on a high note. With a final time of 3:06:17, he is the official winner of the race. Noodt took second in 3:06:53, followed by Barnaby in 3:07:41.
The PTO chose not to disqualify athletes who ran short distances but instead recalculated the standings based on times at the 15-kilometer mark. This means the final running laps of athletes such as Pearson and Barnaby were effectively disregarded. Hours after the race, the PTO cited a “technical problem with the lap counter and timing system” as the cause.