Marten Van Riel was crowned men’s T100 world champion for the first time

Marten Van Riel showed under great pressure to secure his first men’s T100 World Championship title with gold in the Grand Final in Dubai.

The Belgian athlete gained momentum in the final kilometers, left Rico Bogen behind and took his first title.

Bogen beat the Dubai heat to finish second in the race and third overall, while the resurgent Alistair Brownlee took his first podium of the season with bronze.

Van Riel went into the Grand Final with a lot of pressure on his shoulders and the title was within reach after taking two wins and a second place finish in his three starts in the series.

The 31-year-old showed no fear with strong swimming, balanced cycling and clinical running to take the ribbon and the first ever T100 world title.

“It was really hard wearing the number one because I knew in my head that a podium was close and so it was hard to take the win,” he said.

“I tried not to think too much about the title and just aim for the day’s victory.”

“Rico is really good at keeping the pace up, but when I did my first climb we dropped Kyle.” [Smith]I could see he was suffering a little so I knew I would give it a try.

This brings to an end a rollercoaster ride of a year for Van Riel, who was disappointed with a 22nd place finish at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, threw himself into the middle distance and saw success from all directions.

He added: “Winning the T100 series was the goal this year and it kept me going and not doubting my Olympics as I knew my form was much better than what I showed there. It was really good to go straight into the T100 series and it definitely made this a great season.

“It’s all the difficult moments that make the difficult ones even more beautiful.”

Reigning 70.3 world champion Bogen was the biggest challenge for Van Riel on the day and held on for 15km of the 18km run, but couldn’t keep up with the Belgian’s lead with just a few minutes to go.

Second place was his second podium finish of the season after bronze in San Francisco and moved the German to third place overall.

Bogen, known for his success in colder climates, was thrilled to prove the doubters wrong and beat the heat to become a world bronze medalist.

“I’m so proud and now I can say I can do it,” he said.

“I wanted to prove it to the world and through my training I knew I was fit and could do it. Now I know I can handle both cold and heat.”

“My coach and I were focused on this day and the grand final, so I’m proud to have achieved it.”

“Before the race it was tense because I thought I could do it. So it’s crazy to hear that I’m third.”

Brownlee left the best in Dubai until the end, overtaking New Zealand’s Kyle Smith in the closing stages of the run to secure his first T100 podium.

In a turbulent season, the Briton was not in the top three due to combat injuries and penalties.

Brownlee almost took fate from his hands again when he slipped on the gravel while cornering, but fought back to reach the third step for the first time in seven races.

“I needed a few stars to align me and luckily they did today,” he said.

“The fall was right when I was caught [Kyle Smith] The timing couldn’t have been worse either, but in terms of the things that could go wrong, it was insignificant.

“It’s very rare that things go perfectly, and you have to train and prepare for things that can go well.”