‘Happy to be back’ — Derron leads women’s Race to Qatar standings as she prepares to defend Dubai T100 title

DUBAI: Switzerland’s Julie Derron, current leader of the T100 Race to Qatar, will head a 20-strong professional field when she defends her Dubai T100 title at Al-Mamzar next month.

The event, on Saturday, Nov. 14, is the last chance to score points before the Qatar T100 Triathlon World Championship Final on Dec. 10–12.

Derron, a silver medalist at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, finished third in the T100 season standings in 2024 and was runner-up to Great Britain’s Kate Waugh last year.

Dubai has been good to her; she finished second to the USA’s Taylor Knibb at the inaugural race in 2024 and beat Waugh by more than three minutes last November, with Britain’s Jessica Learmonth third.

“I’m very happy to be coming back to Dubai,” said Derron. “I always seem to find a lot of positive energy there, and the support last year was amazing. This year we have a new venue at Al-Mamzar, so I’m excited to race on a new course and see a different side of the city.”

The Race to Qatar

This season’s T100 Triathlon World Tour is split into four races each for women and men, held in different locations and on different dates, before both fields come together in December for the grand final in Doha. Dubai is the last of the four women’s races, of which each carry a $50,000 winner’s prize — double last year’s amount.

Knibb won the season opener on the Gold Coast in March, with Derron’s points coming from the two subsequent events. She was second to Great Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown in Pamplona in May and won in Vancouver in August, 1 minute and 40 seconds clear of Waugh, with Taylor-Brown third.

That puts her on 64 points, two ahead of fellow Swiss Imogen Simmonds and three clear of Taylor-Brown. Each athlete’s best three race scores count towards the title, along with their result in Qatar, where the winner takes 55 points rather than the usual 35.

Taylor-Brown is among Derron’s challengers in Dubai, along with Waugh, the reigning T100 World Champion. Also on the start list are Germany’s Bianca Bogen, New Zealand’s Nicole van der Kaay and Spain’s Sara Perez Sala, currently fifth, seventh and 9th in the standings, and Britain’s Jessica Fullagar, runner-up on the Gold Coast. Simmonds is not racing in Dubai, so her 62 points will stand going into Qatar.

“Leading the standings is a nice position to be in, but it’s very close, and with Dubai being the last race before Qatar I want to show another strong race,” said Derron. “I’ve come close to the title the last two years, so scoring highly in Dubai would be the perfect way to go into the final.”

Sam Renouf, CEO of the Professional Triathletes Organisation, said: “It’s been great to see international events taking place across the UAE, like the HotelPlanner Tour’s Abu Dhabi Challenge in Al-Ain earlier this month.

“We’ve continued to see strong demand for Dubai T100, with the Sprint and Olympic distances selling well, so anyone thinking about it should get themselves registered. On the professional side, Dubai is the women’s last chance to score points before Qatar, so there’s a lot riding on it. Julie was outstanding here last year, and with the standings this tight it should be a great race to watch.”

DUBAI T100 WOMEN’S PROFESSIONAL START LIST