Gold Coast, Australia: American superstar Taylor Knibb put in a flawless performance to win the season opener on the 2026 T100 Triathlon World Tour in Australia.
Holding off a very strong first showing on the T100 series by Jessica Fullagar from Great Britain.
Competing in her first middle distance triathlon and only second non drafting race, Fullagar put in a sensational T100 debut to push Knibb all the way.
Switzerland’s Imogen Simmonds was third, recording her second T100 podium after her second place in London in 2024.
Home favourite, Australian Ellie Salthouse, experienced a difficult swim and stomach issues on the run, but battled hard to finish seventh.
Knibb’s excellence in taking her first win of the year – and her sixth T100 victory in total – was matched only by the epic setting on the Gold Coast.
Starting with a stunning ocean swim off Surfers Paradise and supported by a large and vociferous crowd, the new location took centre stage and has already been confirmed to return in 2027 – on 20-21 March next year.
Key Quotes
Winner: Taylor Knibb (USA)
“I’m very happy. I’m still just a little in shock from that race. I mean that swim was quite rough. I was contemplating life decisions there, but that’s always the sign of a good race when you’re contemplating life decisions…a fun race.”
On the swim:
“The swim felt like an hour and a half.”
On the bike:
“I felt like I was kinda opening up into it. Some people can taper off but I was opening up and it was a really nice crossover, so you can blow up gaps. Jess raced amazingly, especially for her first middle distance race. The pressure was on the whole day which makes a win even greater.”
On her busy plans for the season:
“Well it’s one thing to write it all down on a Word document, it’s another thing to do it. So maybe I’ll check back in a few months and see how it’s going. Maybe next year we can see how it went [smiles]. But I’m really excited. This event popped up on the calendar and it was a last minute entry and it really excited me – and last year I didn’t say ‘yes’ to these kind of things and that’s been a strength of mine. Some of my best races I’ve said ‘yes’ to at the last minute. I said to Dan [Lorang, Taylor’s coach] ‘can we do it?’ and he said ‘why?’ and I said ‘I want to race a really competitive race and here I am against a middle distance field’. ‘I don’t think the travel is too bad’ and he said ‘ok we can give it a go’. He didn’t love the idea, I don’t think. But part of me knows I race from a place of joy. I appreciate my team sees me for me and it might not be straight forward…it might not be normal but we’re going to make it work for us.”
On next T100 race:
“I’m looking at the flights to Spain!” [Spain T100 on 23 May is next women’s pro race]
Second: Jessica Fullagar (GBR)
“When I wasn’t suffering, I was having a lot of fun. I think you could tell I was a rookie out there. A lot of mistakes but I was here to learn a lot and have a lot of fun and considering I’m 16,000 km away from home it felt like a home race at times so I’m just grateful to be here.”
Is Lucy Byram getting her bike back?
“Mmm, maybe. I’ll think on it.”
“I hopefully have a TT waiting for me at home when I get back. It just wasn’t ready on time. So hopefully I’m back on my Scott when I get home and hopefully there’s more to come. But a lot to learn in the meantime and training to get done.”
On the swim training Phil Clayton, a local coach gave her:
“I’m really lucky to have been out here with the squad [British Triathlon Elite training camp] for the last few weeks and working with Phil Clayton…I’m really grateful to him. Thank you Phil. I had a look at the course yesterday and it’s a hard swim no doubt, but hopefully I did him proud today. I led out the swim I think.”
Hard on the bike?
“I think you can tell I’m a short course gal. I got to 40km and I thought ‘oh my goodness’, this is a long way and I think naturally I clicked into going out hard and I think I should have maybe paced it a bit more. Same on the run. I naturally went out hard and thought, I’ve still got a long way to run, so I’ve got to learn how to pace better I think.”
On convincing Rhys Davey, her coach, to do more T100 races:
“Pleasee…[smiles at the camera]?”
Third: Imogen Simmonds (SUI)
“I’ll be honest, I’m pretty stoked to be back. As you say, it was a pretty tough year for me last year and even at the hardest time I know that I always had it in me. I love racing. I love triathlon. I love pushing myself on a daily basis. Just against myself and just to be back and feeling that controlled pain. Like this hurts but it’s good. It was such a relief to be back.”
On the swim:
“I enjoyed it. I’m not afraid to swim in these kind of conditions. My parents forced me to swim in seas from a very young age living in Hong Kong. I got a bit lucky, I think some of the girls took the wrong trajectory and coming back they missed a buoy so it split up quite a bit and then I tried to use the waves as much as possible. I’ve been told that’s the thing to do by all you Aussies. So thank you all for the tips and I just got to the shore as quickly as possible. I now can’t wait to go back to my support team in Geneva and celebrate.”
Ellie Salthouse (AUS) – the first Australian home in seventh:
“I had a terrible swim, unfortunately, so I came out way further down than I wanted to, and that I was hoping for. So I really had to give it to myself on the bike and dig deep and put some serious work in to get myself back. And unfortunately I had some stomach issues on the run and ended up in the port-a-potty. So yeah, all in all, not quite what we were after, but I fought and I mean, I did what I could on the day. So I’m proud of the effort. Obviously, the result’s not quite what we came for, but we live to fight another day.”
On the swim:
“I think my side of the pontoon, unfortunately, maybe didn’t get the rip or just didn’t quite get the start that we wanted. It seemed the left side had an advantage and the right side not so much so, yeah, maybe just a bad start position. Maybe something I did. I have no idea. I’m not traditionally a great surf swimmer, so I had a bit of a crash course this past week. Maybe a bit more time in the surf would’ve been good for me, but you live and you learn. We don’t get to swim in these conditions too often, so next time I’ll be sure to practice a bit more.”
HOW THE RACE UNFOLDED
Surfers Paradise gave us an epic setting for the first swim of the new T100 season. The bustling heart of Australia’s Gold Coast drawing an excited crowd as the athletes took their marks, before sprinting towards the ocean in a wild looking start at 1335 local time.
T100 debutant Jess Fullagar (GBR) embraced the surf, to follow uber swimmer Sara Perez Sala (ESP) in the lead group on the first lap. But with the swell bobbing the athletes up and down, sighting was challenging and the Spanish star went awry at the start of the second lap and lost time to leaders, rejoining the race in the third pack. This left the door open for Fullagar who used the surf well to make her way back into the shore and into T1 on her own, completing the swim in 26:04. Imogen Simmonds (SWI) was five seconds back with Australian Danielle De Francesco in third a further second down. Taylor Knibb (USA) was 7th, 36 seconds down on the leader and Australian favourite Ellie Salthouse was 15th, a full 2:25 down.
Fullagar was first out onto the bike leading her first ever T100 race, quickly into her work and in a ‘beautiful’ aero position according to Belinda Grainger on commentary. She was also on a borrowed bike from compatriot Lucy Byram, who missed out on a start in this race due to a hip injury.
Over 8 laps of a 10km relatively flat, fast and sweeping bike course Taylor Knibb showed why she’s the top ranked biker. ‘Flawless’ was how Grainger described her performance on two wheels. Knibb worked hard to catch Fullagar gradually, eking out the seconds on each lap before passing the Brit at the 47km mark on lap 5 and going on to extend her lead to just over a minute, having started a minute down. The American averaging 42.04 kph according to the T100 live race data.
Meanwhile, Simmonds continued to push in third, with German Bianca Bogen in fourth and followed by Sala, Van De Kaay (NZL) and then Ellie Salthouse (AUS) in sixth, coming into T2 6:32 down on the leader.
Knibb was into T2 just over a minute up on Fullagar. She put socks on, ice pack down tri suit and was off at 4pm local time, with the temperature around 26 degree celsius and 70% humidity. Having stepped up from short distance racing, this was running into the unknown for Fullagar, after 80km on the bike in a pro race for the first time. But she looked sprightly out of T2 and looked light on her feet. Simmonds started her run 2:58 down on the leader.
With many expecting Knibb to run away, it was Fullagar who was faster to start with, running an average pace of 3:30 min/km or 5:38 min/mile, closing to 48 seconds on lap 3 of 6.
But Knibb responded and kept the gap hovering around one minute to win her first race of what promises to be a busy season. She takes $50,000 for the win and 35 points towards this season’s T100 Race To Qatar. Fullagar takes 29 points and $40,000, with Simmonds helping herself to 26 points and $30,000.
Race Finish
| Position | Athlete | Finish | T100 Race To Qatar Points | Prize Money |
| 1 | T Knibb | 3:27:53 | 35 | $50,000 |
| 2 | J Fullagar | 3:28:53 | 29 | $40,000 |
| 3 | I Simmonds | 3:33:11 | 26 | $30,000 |
| 4 | N Van der Kaay | 3:35:25 | 23 | $25,000 |
| 5 | B Bogen | 3:36:13 | 20 | $21,000 |
| 6 | S Pérez Sala | 3:36:41 | 18 | $18,000 |
| 7 | E Salthouse | 3:37:40 | 16 | $15,000 |
| 8 | L Wilms | 3:39:35 | 14 | $13,000 |
| 9 | N Van Coevorden | 3:40:39 | 12 | $10,000 |
| 10 | A Siffert | 3:40:51 | 11 | $7,500 |
| 11 | D Kleiser | 3:43:24 | 10 | $6,500 |
| 12 | C Hartnett | 3:44:25 | 9 | $6,000 |
| 13 | M Brunnee | 3:47:19 | 8 | $5,500 |
| 14 | H De Vet | 3:48:09 | 7 | $5,000 |
| 15 | D De Francesco | 3:49:41 | 6 | $4,500 |
| 16 | R Clarke | 3:49:47 | 5 | $4,000 |
| 17 | R Hollioake | 3:50:57 | 4 | $3,500 |
| 18 | R Hughes | 3:52:44 | 3 | $3,500 |
| 19 | L Dornauer | 3:57:09 | 2 | $3,500 |
As well as the professional T100 race, the weekend also sees thousands of amateurs taking part in an equivalent 100km triathlon over a similar course to the pros as well as an Olympic distance triathlon and a 10km run.
The amateur T100 sold out in just nine days and across the full weekend festival more than 5,000 amateur athletes will take part, including participants from around the world and as far afield as the UK, France and Germany, with ages ranging from 18 to 80 years-old and from all walks of life and backgrounds. Including Australian Olympians like boxer Harry Garside and mogul skier Britt Cox.
Pro Supercar driver Will Davison did the Olympic distance race earlier this morning, completing the course under his target time with a 2:28:24 finish.
“I think I snuck under two-and-a-half hours,” said Davison.“It was a beautiful day out there – the swim, the ride and run – but it’s also quite still and muggy so it’s hard work. There were a lot of people cheering me on out there – it’s my backyard so I’ve trained there throughout the year on one part of the course or another so it’s pretty cool.”
The PTO is working on the Gold Coast T100 with Events Management Queensland (EMQ), a major event management company wholly owned by the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland. The race is part of EMQ’s expanding portfolio of major sporting events, which includes the ASICS Gold Coast Marathon, the Toowoomba Running Festival and the Pan Pacific Masters Games. The event is also supported by Experience Gold Coast and the Queensland Government through Tourism & Events Queensland.
-ends-
How the 2026 T100 Triathlon World Tour works:
- Athletes score 35 points for first place to 1 pt for 20th place at each of the races; 2nd – 29 points; and 3rd – 26 points
- The Qatar T100 Triathlon World Championship Final has increased points to up the ante (55 pts down to 4 pts)
- Each athlete’s best three T100 race scores plus the Qatar T100 Triathlon World Championship Final will count towards the women’s and men’s T100 World Championship titles
- $275,000 USD prize fund at each T100, totalling $2,750,000 across the nine races (1st place – $50,000k; 2nd – $40,000; 3rd – $30,000 at each race)
- The series winners following the Qatar T100 Triathlon World Championship Final will be crowned T100 Triathlon World Champion and collect $100,000 USD from an additional total prize pool of $1,450,000 (2nd – $80,000; 3rd – 75,000)
- Between the T100 race prize fund and T100 Triathlon World Tour pool, the series provides $4,200,000 in athlete compensation, and is distributed in a way that not only rewards the winners, but also recognises the significant achievement of racing at this level
- For more details, visit https://t100triathlon.com/pro-racing/
For Further Information:
PTO – Anthony Scammell E: [email protected]
Events Management Queensland – Adam Gardini E: [email protected]
About Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO)
The PTO is a sports body that is co-owned by its professional athletes, seeking to elevate and grow the sport of triathlon and take it to the next level. Its T100 Triathlon World Tour was introduced in January 2024 and is designated by World Triathlon as the ‘official World Championship for long distance triathlon’. This is part of a 12-year strategic partnership with the sport’s international governing body to develop the sport and it will grow further in 2027 with the launch of the new Triathlon World Tour. The T100 Triathlon World Tour is a season-long schedule of World Championship level races competed over 100km (2km swim, 80km bike and 18km run), where the world’s best triathletes go head-to-head in iconic locations. In 2026, the T100 Tour will deliver its 9-stop T100 Race To Qatar to: the Gold Coast (21-22 March), Singapore (25-26 April), Spain (23-24 May), San Francisco (6-7 June), Vancouver (15-16 August), French Riviera (19-20 September), Dubai (12-15 November), Saudi Arabia (November) & Qatar (11-12 December). T100 weekends are ‘festivals of multisport’ and feature a range of opportunities for amateur athletes of all levels to get involved. From experienced amateurs tackling the 100km distance to first-time swim, bike and run participants taking on single discipline, untimed events. For more information visit www.t100triathlon.com
World Triathlon
World Triathlon is the international governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic sport of triathlon and all related multisport disciplines around the world, including duathlon, aquathlon, cross triathlon and winter triathlon. Triathlon made its Olympic debut in Sydney 2000, with a third medal event, the Mixed Team Relay, added to the programme at Tokyo 2020, while para triathlon was first added to the Paralympic programme at Rio 2016. World Triathlon is proudly committed to the development of the sport worldwide, with inclusion, equality, sustainability and transparency at our core as we seek to help triathletes at all levels of the sport to be extraordinary.
About Events Management Queensland
Events Management Queensland (EMQ) is a major event management company wholly owned by the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland.
Managers of the ASICS Gold Coast Marathon, the Toowoomba Running Festival and the Pan Pacific Masters Games, Events Management Queensland produces high profile, mass participation sporting events that maximise economic and tourism impact to the region.
The events provide an enjoyable and memorable event experience that showcases Queensland whilst maintaining world class event management standards.
