“I think I cried a bit on the bike, I just was suffering so much.” Kate Waugh takes emotional victory in T100 Grand Final in Qatar

Great Britain’s Kate Waugh claimed the victory in the Qatar T100 Triathlon World Championship Final today in Lusail after a hard year of training and racing was rewarded.

Waugh had led the rankings going into the title decider and knew a victory would seal the season-long crown – and her first ever World Championship in the sport. A strong field didn’t make it easy for the athlete though, pushing her every step of the way.

“That had it all. It was just hard from start to finish.” said Waugh. “I think I cried a bit on the bike, I just was suffering so much and obviously there was the drama with the water stations and I was getting angry. My dad said to me at one point “Okay just channel that anger” so I set off on the run and didn’t look back.

“Going onto the last lap I felt the floor starting to tilt a bit and I was like “oh I’m in trouble now” I just held it together and then Georgia was putting me under pressure and I luckily just got across the line.”

What happened in the swim

As most would expect T100 series contender and the strongest swimmer in tri Lucy Charles-Barclay led the 2km swim, leaving the water in 26:25 and fronting a lead group of eight that included fellow Briton Kate Waugh along with Jess Learmonth and Georgia Taylor-Brown.

Meanwhile, another pre-race favorite – Switzerland’s Julie Derron – exited the water 1:24 behind. 

What happened on the bike

After a fast T1, Waugh led early on the 80km bike before Learmonth and then Charles-Barclay joined her – creating an all-British front trio. By 15km, the top five were exclusively British, with India Lee and Taylor-Brown the only other athletes within 1 minute of the lead. After seeming to struggle on the last bike lap, Waugh eventually surged in the final 5km to enter T2 first.

What happened on the run

Showing another lightning transition, Waugh took a 17-second lead out onto the 18km run, while Derron started the run in 6th place, 1:44 behind.  By the 5km mark, Waugh led Charles-Barclay by 48 seconds, with Taylor-Brown (+1:21) and Derron (+1:41) chasing hard to come up onto the Brit’s shoulder. That pair then ran together, overtaking Charles-Barclay and in the final lap, Taylor-Brown broke away from Derron to close within 45 seconds of the lead with 1500m to go.

Despite Taylor-Brown’s late charge, Waugh was alone going into the finish straight, grabbing the tape full of emotion and exhaustion to become the 2025 T100 Triathlon World Champion in a time of 3:31:30. The Brit takes $25,000 for the win and a huge $200,000 world champion bonus.

One last push for Waugh

““It hurt so much, mentally, emotionally… it’s December now and I’ve never raced this late in the year,” said Waugh. “I’m tired but I told myself I’m going to enjoy my holiday so much more if I just give it one last push. I’m completely overwhelmed with emotion and I’m so grateful to the T100 for this opportunity and I’m buzzing.

“I also want to give a shoutout to Lucy Charles-Barclay and Julie Derron. They literally pushed me right to the line and I think we made for an epic battle. I’m grateful to them and kudos to them.”

Taylor-Brown was second, Derron’s third and Australia’s Ellie Salthouse managed to overtake Charles-Barclay and take fourth place, Charles-Barclay rounded out the top-5, finishing 3rd overall in the standings and earning $150,000 in bonus money.

A busy year for Charles-Barclay

Lucy Charles-Barclay came into the T100 final after a summer of real highs and lows. A DNF in Kona at the Ironman World Champs, followed by taking the victory at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships a few short weeks later had take their toll as Charles-Barclay revealed at the finish:

““I’m definitely happy it’s over. It’s been a great year, I would have liked to finish a bit stronger than that but I’m happy I made it to the finish line and made it to the off-season. I can celebrate that!

“I feel like I was obviously on the back off a really big high and then I was trying to knuckle down and do those last few weeks of training. Obviously we’re leading into the festive period so it’s hard to do that but I feel like I definitely did the best I could. I think that kind of showed today, that was all I had left to give. I’ve got to be happy with it.”

“I’m definitely buzzing about that [not having to go for a long run on Xmas morning], I think I’ll be enjoying all of the festive food and re-fuelling hopefully for another big year next year.”

Taylor-Brown takes silver

Great Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown was happy with her second place finish:

“I just needed a 21-race build up to get me ready! I don’t know, it’s my last one and my aim was to have a good swim and I really fought on the swim. It’s really hard at the front. I had a good swim, I got out with the front girls. I lost the front girls on the bike but we didn’t lose too much time so I was happy. I am happy to lose in these races, so I just go for it and see what happens.” 

“I think that’s what I have done this year – just race myself to fitness. I mean I was getting close to Kate but also I thought I can’t pass her, she’s about to win, it would be really mean for me to pass her now. But I didn’t get there anyway. When I was running with Julie I just sat on her shoulder and then I took a chance, I went and I didn’t look back and hoped she wasn’t feeling better than me.”

The T100 race series starts again in March 2026.

All images: T100