A new champion was crowned at a sweltering Singapore T100 as Dutch wildcard Youri Keulen claimed his maiden T100 victory; while American comeback specialist Sam Long charged from last on the swim to finish second, despite serving a 30-second penalty on the run.
Belgian Pieter Heemeryck finished a very creditable third and Scotland’s David McNamee leapfrogged Germany’s Mika Noodt and New Zealand’s Kyle Smith in the final kilometers of the 100k race that saw its fair share of thrills and spills.
How The Race Unfolded:
In sweltering overcast conditions, last-minute Wildcard Josh Amberger led the first lap of the 2km swim with the likes of Alistair Brownlee and Kyle Smith in close contention. On the second lap, Aaron Royle took to the front and led into T1. Meanwhile, Sam Long – 2nd in the Miami T100 – left the water last with over four minutes to make up and was also given a 30-sec penalty for leaving his swim kit out of the box during transition.
Once on the bike, there was plenty of chopping and changing early on before T100 Wildcard Keulen pushed his way to the front and went on the attack. He soon put a minute into the chasers, which included fellow wildcards Mika Noodt and Kyle Smith as well as Brownlee (fifth in Miami) and Heemeryk.
The other rider attacking the bike with gusto was Sam Long, who began to rip his way through the field – making it into the top 10 with 20km to go.
In pole position, Keulen was holding just over one minute on the chase group and took that onto the 18km run, speeding away to widen his lead.
Behind, as the chase group entered T2, a late dismount from Brownlee meant the double Olympic champion was handed a 30-second penalty. Serving it after making it to the podium places, the Brit was soon reduced to a walk, then stretched his calf, before succumbing to a DNF.
Off the bike in eighth place with 3min 20sec to leader Keulen, Long was fastest on the run course and made up 90 seconds by 12km to pick off the competition, overtaking Heemeryck to take 2nd place. Serving his penalty at the start of the final lap and dropping to fourth, he stayed calm and was soon back in second. Behind, David McNamee was the other fast mover, making up eight places during the run.
There was no doubt as to who would take the tape, however. In a breakthrough performance, Keulen gave everything he had to secure victory, collapsing over the line to take a US$25,000 (S$34,027) paycheck, score the maximum 35 points and jump to the top of the T100 series standings.
Long’s tenacious and powerful performance saw him take second again and another US$16,000 in the bank and add 28 points to his T100 series tally, putting him just one point behind Keulen.
Heemeryck held strong for third place, US$12,000 and 25 points.
Singapore T100 men’s Pro Race Standings:
1. Youri Keulen (NED)- 3hr 21min 01sec
2. Sam Long (USA) – 3:22:38
3. Pieter Heemeryck (BEL) – 3:23:30
4. David McNamee (SCO) – 3:26:03
5. Kyle Smith (NZL) – 3:26:57