There have been many famous duels and sprint finishes in triathlon... Olympic upsets, IM knee crawls to the finish, crashes, swim deaths, bike deaths, MANY controversial DQ's / penalties........ but what happened yesterday in Dubai BOGGLES the mind and has rocked the triathlon world, it is so unbelievable. So many fumbles and mistakes by race organizers AND pros in ONE SINGLE RACE.
To put what happened yesterday in triathlon into running perspective, it would be the equivalent of a diamond league 100m track race that goes off with 4 false starters WHO CONTINUE RUNNING, then three lane violations mid-race, and then the race stopping short at 90 meters, but only for SOME of the racers, with officials deciding the 100m outcome hours later because there were so many problems in ONE RACE.
Morgan Pearson was first out of the water but he was NOT leading the race on the bike. He had fallen back to about 7th or 8th place nearing the end of the bike.
Then the unthinkable...
The bike leader (Hayden Wilde of NZ) rode AN EXTRA LAP (because the lap counter had malfunctioned / many pros claimed the race organizers had blocked the entrance into T2 so they couldn't ride into the finish anyway). Race leader Wilde did this BEFORE, miscounting laps in another triathlon (Super League) but in that race he turned around about 100 meters later and came back to transition because people on course screamed at him. He lost that race. But here in Dubai, Hayden Wilde KEPT RIDING and others behind followed him into an extra bike lap. Announcers were even calling the end of the bike portion on the PA system as he blasted by! But he held up a finger at them telling them, "no, one more lap" and pushed on.
Pearson and others biking further back were gapped but THAT saved their race. They counted their bike laps CORRECTLY and came in on the correct bike lap. suddenly Pearson went from 8th or so to 3rd and he quickly caught the two in front of him to take the lead and the win.
Or so HE THOUGHT!!
Disaster struck AGAIN!!!! It went from comical to TWIGHLIGHT ZONE....
Out on the run now, and with Pearson easily leading.... FOR SOME REASON, race organizers decided to SHORTEN THE RUN DURING THE RACE. They began telling pros to stop one lap EARLY on the run. But they didn't tell Pearson! He ran his final CORRECT lap but behind him officials were telling athletes to come in early and stop, NOT COMPLETING the entire run. Essentially, race officials themselves were DQ'ing 85% of the field because they DID NOT ACTUALLY FINISH THE RACE DISTANCE.
So, long bike, short run. But without telling anyone pre-race. Just... WTF!?!?!?!
So as Pearson is winning and on the CORRECT run lap, others were being told BY RACE OFFICIALS to end their race EARLY and stop a lap short. Run laps were 2.25k each. Bike laps much more, of course
So here comes Pearson to take the tape and the win...... he approaches the finish line but there is no tape! Also, there are a bunch of other pros ALREADY finished just standing there talking post race about the bike lap mishap, as they all DID NOT COMPLETE the run course. Pearson runs up like, "Why are these guys here?! I just won, Where's the finish line tape???"
The entire race was live streamed. Search "T100 Dubai"
Many hours later, they did a mock finish scenario at night so Morgan could be shown "winning" and breaking the tape. With no crowds and a paltry smattering of fake applause from whichever race staff they could find to go out there and clap.
What a hot mess.
Pearson had the fastest swim and 2nd fasted run.
This PTO T100 series is THE money series for pro triathlon. IM is a pathetic joke (pay wise) and has been forever but this is def gonna tarnish PTO T100. Sad. Triathletes train their b***s off and get no pay at the top level. You gotta be a KB, Yee, Gomez, Frodo, or Brownlee to actually create a retirement. Most others lose money, even in the top 10 standings of the biggest series, chasing points for stuff like this to go down..
Congrats Morgan.... that was a CRAZY WIN!!