And so it all comes down to this one final race.
A season-long battle for supremacy is set to conclude with a desert showdown for the ages between three of the biggest names in triathlon – Kate Waugh, Julie Derron and Lucy Charles-Barclay.
The Women’s T100 Triathlon World Tour has already delivered some incredible action over the course of its eight-race campaign, and now Friday’s finale in Qatar promises to deliver one more dose of gripping swim, bike, run drama.
Having criss-crossed the globe with events in Singapore, San Francisco, Vancouver, London, France, Spain, Australia and Dubai, the Race to Qatar 2025 now has one final story to tell… and it promises to be a real thriller.
Here is all you need to know about the T100 World Tour women’s final…
Start times and how to watch live
Both the men’s and women’s races will take place on Friday, December 12, with the women kicking things off at 10am local Arabian Standard Time (AST). For UK audiences, this means the race will start at 7am (GMT), while in central Europe it will be 8am.
American viewers on the Pacific Coast will need to tune in at 11pm on the previous Thursday evening, while it is a 1am start on the Friday for those in the Central Standard Time zone and 2am Friday for the East Coast.
The race is free to view on the T100 Triathlon World Tour channel PTO+, which can be accessed by clicking HERE.
Viewers in the UK and Ireland can watch live on TNT Sports, while in Central Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Indian subcontinent will have access on Discovery+ and Eurosport. For those in the US, it will also be broadcast live on Max.
For more details on how to watch the race, click HERE.
T100 points boosted for final
While most will already know how the points work in the T100 World Tour, it is worth a look again at how this weekend’s boosted rewards could play a major hand in deciding the overall World Champion.
The athletes arrive in Qatar having raced in four or more of the regular-season races and bring with them a current tally of the points accumulated from the best four of those finishes.
Until now, a win has been rewarded with 35 points, second place with 29, and third with 26, continuing on a sliding scale right down to just a single point for the athlete who finishes in 20th.
For Friday’s final, those points have been increased to 55 for the winner, 46 for the runner-up, 41 for third place, and four points for the 20th-placed competitor.
With only nine points separating the top three athletes in the women’s standings, the spiced-up points will certainly ensure that everything is up for grabs once Waugh, Derron and Charles-Barclay dive into the Arabian Gulf.
Race scenarios – Why it is all up for grabs in Qatar
This promises to be a straight shootout between the leading three athletes in the overall standings, as Britain’s Kate Waugh (1st) and Lucy Charles-Barclay (3rd) face stiff competition from in-form Swiss competitor Julie Derron.
With only nine points separating them, it really is a simple case of winner-takes-all for whoever can cross the line and break the tape first.
Waugh (128) may hold slender leads over Derron (122) and Charles-Barclay (119) going into the final, but with the boosted tally of 55 points for a win, she knows that realistically she cannot rely on her closest rivals having a bad day, and only a win will do as she looks to maintain her place at the top.
Winner at both Singapore and Wollongong, she also finished second in Dubai, Spain and London, while she was third in San Francisco. Well beaten by Derron in Dubai last month, she knows she will need to be at her very best to resist the pressure from her closest rival.
Derron’s win in Dubai catapulted her into title contention, having previously won in San Francisco and recorded a second-place finish in Vancouver. She looks to be fully recovered from a mid-season injury sustained in a bike accident and now poses a real threat to the two British athletes.
Charles-Barclay missed out on Dubai, having decided to focus on winning the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, but comes into the final knowing that a third win on the circuit this season will see her pick up a second major title this year.
Charles-Barclay stormed to victory at the London and Spain T100 races and will no doubt be looking to make use of her powerful swim to get ahead of the pack early and set the tone for a race that promises to be an all-time classic.
Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) and Jess Learmonth (GBR) do have outside chances of sneaking into the top three overall standings, as they sit on 107 and 96 points, respectively, but it would need all of the current top three to have a horror show for that to happen. Taylor Knibb, in 6th place overall, is not competing in Qatar, having already called time on her season.
Indeed, Learmonth would need them to finish no higher than 9th, 7th and 6th, respectively, for her to stand any chance, while Gentle’s slightly better perspective would require Waugh and Derron to finish no higher than 5th and 4th and Charles-Barclay no higher than 3rd.
Stranger things have, of course, happened when live sport hits crunch time, but it would be the biggest shock of the triathlon season if the T100 Triathlon World Series Champion does not come from the current trio sitting at the top of the rankings.
T100 series standings
| Position | Athlete | Nation | Series Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kate Waugh | GBR | 128 |
| 2 | Julie Derron | SUI | 122 |
| 3 | Lucy Charles-Barclay | GBR | 119 |
| 4 | Ashleigh Gentle | AUS | 107 |
| 5 | Jess Learmonth | GBR | 96 |
| 6 | Taylor Knibb | USA | 90 |
| 7 | Lucy Byram | GBR | 73 |
| 8 | Hannah Berry | NZL | 71 |
| 9 | Paula Findlay | CAN | 66 |
| 10 | Taylor Spivey | USA | 66 |
T100 prize money – $2.94m purse to be won
A whopping $200,000 US will go to the winners of both the men’s and women’s T100 World Series finals on Friday, as the overall purse of $2.94m US is paid out on a sliding scale right down to the athlete who is placed 20th in the overall standings.
The overall runners-up will take home $170,000 US, and third will earn $150,000 US.
T100 Series End Purse $2.94m US
- 1 $200,000
- 2 $170,000
- 3 $150,000
- 4 $120,000
- 5 $110,000
- 6 $90,000
- 7 $85,000
- 8 $80,000
- 9 $75,000
- 10 $70,000
- 11 $50,000
- 12 $45,000
- 13 $40,000
- 14 $35,000
- 15 $30,000
- 16 $28,000
- 17 $26,000
- 18 $24,000
- 19 $22,000
- 20 $20,000