American star Taylor Knibb returned to the top step at the inaugural Vancouver T100 Triathlon in front of a big crowd at a stunning Jericho Beach Park course.
The Olympian’s stellar performance on the bike was matched only by Great Britain’s Jess Learmonth, which earned the pair almost 5 minutes on the rest of the field.
But while Knibb went on to secure her first T100 win of the year, Learmonth was agonisingly caught in the last kilometer of the 18km run by Switzerland’s Olympic silver medallist Julie Derron. The Brit hanging on to third place to secure her first T100 podium.
Canadian Paula Findlay finished in eighth place after receiving a penalty on the bike leg.
How The Race Unfolded
In the women’s race, Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) took the 2km swim out hard with Jess Learmonth (GBR), Wildcard Maya Kingma (NED), Holly Lawrence (GBR), 2024 T100 World Champion Taylor Knibb (USA) and Taylor Spivey (USA) strung out behind but in contact.
Wildcard Alice Betto (ITA) was in no-mans land while Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) led the main chase group, around 90-seconds behind by the 1km split, trailed by the likes of Paula Findlay (CAN) and San Francisco T100 winner Julie Derron (SWI).
Out of the water with a 2:40 lead on the chasing group, Learmonth quickly took the lead while Knibb was soon in 2nd place. From there, the pair locked together to power away from the rest of the field.
The race settled into a groove with the leaders pulling ever further ahead with only Paula Findlay’s 1-minute drafting penalty disrupting the flow. At the half-way mark of the bike, Knibb and Learmonth led Charles-Barclay by 2:24, Kingma and Lawrence another 20 seconds behind. Julie Derron was up to 6th place, but 4-minutes in arrears, Spivey at 4:20 and Gentle at 4:43, the last athlete within 5-minutes of the lead.
With 20km to go, Charles-Barclay and Kingma were trailing Knibb and Learmonth by 3:48, Lawrence around another 20-seconds back and Derron another 1:10 behind Lawrence.
Off the bike and Knibb was first onto the 18km run, distancing Learmonth out of transition. Learmonth was well out of sight by the time the trio of Charles-Barclay, Kingma and Lawrence entered transition, 4:44 behind while Derron was another 40 seconds back.
Charles-Barclay ran up to 3rd but before long, Derron’s ferocious running pace saw her make the pass and into the podium positions – but still 3:38 behind Learmonth with 10km to go. Meanwhile, Knibb was holding strong at the front with a 1-minute lead.
With Knibb 3km from the finish, her lead to Learmonth was 2:08 and unassailable. For the remaining podium positions, the splits showed it was set to be a tight battle.
Nothing could stop Knibb’s path to a 5th T100 title and the American crossed the line well clear of the rest in 3:30:50 and up to 2nd in the T100 Race To Qatar standings after only 2 races.
A little way back on the course, Derron finally caught and passed Learmonth to take 2nd place – for the 4th time – to Knibb, 2:06 behind. That moved the Swiss star up to 2nd in the T100 standings.
Learmonth came home 3rd, clearly delighted with her first T100 podium finish 2:29 behind Knibb.
Lucy Charles-Barclay, finishing out of the podium placings in a T100 race for the first time, took 4th place while Gentle rounded out the top-5 after a strong run.
| Position |
Athlete |
Finish |
T100 Race To Qatar Points |
Prize Money |
| 1 |
T Knibb |
3:30:50 |
35 |
$25,000 |
| 2 |
J Derron |
3:32:55 |
29 |
$17,000 |
| 3 |
J Learmonth |
3:33:18 |
26 |
$13,000 |
| 4 |
L Charles-Barclay |
3:35:49 |
23 |
$10,500 |
| 5 |
A Gentle |
3:37:23 |
20 |
$9,000 |
| 6 |
H Lawrence |
3:38:09 |
18 |
$8,000 |
| 7 |
T Spivey |
3:40:05 |
16 |
$7,000 |
| 8 |
P Findlay |
3:41:15 |
14 |
$6,000 |
| 9 |
L Byram |
3:41:50 |
12 |
$5,000 |
| 10 |
D Kleiser |
3:43:39 |
11 |
$4,500 |
| 11 |
E Salthouse |
3:44:56 |
10 |
$4,000 |
| 12 |
A Betto |
3:45:34 |
9 |
$3,500 |
| 13 |
G Thek |
3:46:10 |
8 |
$3,000 |
| 14 |
C Perez |
3:47:28 |
7 |
$2,500 |
| 15 |
M McDonald |
3:48:44 |
6 |
$2,000 |
| 16 |
M Kingma |
3:50:23 |
5 |
$1,500 |
| 17 |
M De Boer |
3:52:16 |
4 |
$1,250 |
| 18 |
K Kivioja |
3:58:16 |
3 |
$1,000 |
| 19 |
L Becharas |
4:04:56 |
2 |
$750 |