Top British Women Prep for Home Soil Showdown, Hayden Wilde to Make Comeback at T100 London

Hayden Wilde will make his return to racing after a three-month hiatus due to injury.

The T100 World Tour makes its fourth stop of the season on Saturday with a return to London. The event has, unsurprisingly, attracted many top triathletes from both the men’s and women’s tours. In the women’s race, Australia’s Ashleigh Gentle will look to defend her title from last year, but she’ll have to beat the likes of Taylor Knibb, Julie Derron and Lucy Charles-Barclay (among others in the stacked start list) to do so.

On the men’s side of things, the big story of the weekend will be Hayden Wilde’s return after his brutal training accident just three months ago. He will be lining up against fellow New Zealander Kyle Smith (who finished second in London last year), 2024 70.3 world champ Jelle Geens and more. No matter how either race plays out, they are both sure to be exciting affairs. The women’s race kicks off at 12 p.m. local time on Saturday, and the men will hop in the water at 2:45 p.m.

British Women on Home Soil

Nine of the 20 women set to race in London on the weekend are British, up from last year’s total of six. Three-time Olympic medallist and 2020 World Triathlon champion Georgia Taylor-Brown will be making her T100 debut. So far in her career, Taylor-Brown has done one race longer than Olympic distance — 70.3 Bahrain last November, which she won. WTCS Hamburg and Supertri Toronto are the lone triathlons she has raced this year, but her season is about to pick up, as she said Thursday that she still has 11 more races planned before the end of the year.

Taylor-Brown may be a T100 rookie, but some of her compatriots racing on Saturday are not. Kate Waugh won the first T100 race of the year in Singapore, and she followed that up with a third-place finish in San Francisco. Still a regular on the WTCS circuit, Waugh hasn’t raced too many longer events in her career, but she said she enjoys the variety T100 offers.

Kate Waugh on the run at supertri Boston in 2024. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

“I guess I’m trying to tick off every distance I can in triathlon,” she said. “It’s been cool to mix it up with some longer distance.” As for whether she feels any pressure racing near home, Waugh said she “definitely” does, but not from outside sources.

“More the pressure I put on myself,” she said, noting that she wants to perform well in front of a home crowd.

Jessica Learmonth is another Brit in the field. She hasn’t raced since June, when she finished third at T100 Vancouver and won 70.3 Nice. She of course wants to climb back onto the podium in London, but she said the real excitement is to get the chance to race in front of family and friends. Charles-Barclay expressed similar anticipation for Saturday’s race, saying she’s eager to race on home soil once again.

“The main thing is to enjoy all of the crowds that are going to come and watch and really be able to take that in,” she said. Charles-Barclay added that she’s excited to compete with such a strong field on Saturday.

“I think every T100 race is like a world championship field,” she said, adding that she thinks the London race features “one of the strongest fields we’ve ever had.”

Knibb vs. Derron: Part Three

The many Brits competing in London will be exciting to watch, but a couple of international athletes everyone is keen to see race are Knibb and Derron. The pair of Olympic silver medallists have gone head to head twice this year, first at T100 San Francisco and then at T100 Vancouver a couple of weeks later.

Derron got the better of Knibb in San Francisco, using the second-fastest bike split of the day (behind Knibb’s race-best ride) and a 1:06:37 run (also the second-best split of the day) to take home the win. In Canada, Knibb beat Derron out of the water by more than two minutes, and she followed that up by extending the gap by another three and a half minutes on the ride. Derron once again made up time on the run, but Knibb had built too much of a lead in the first two legs, and she grabbed the victory.

London will be the third showdown between Knibb and Derron, and if it’s anything like their first couple of races this year, it will be fun to watch.

Julie Derron on the run course at 70.3 worlds in 2024.

Wilde’s Quick Comeback

In May, Wilde ran a road race in Japan, where he posted a stellar 10K personal best of 27:39. His elation didn’t last long, as the very next day he crashed his bike while out on a training ride. The accident left him with a punctured lung, multiple broken ribs and a busted scapula, and it looked like his 2025 season could be in jeopardy. Now, however, just three months after the crash, he is ready to toe the start line in London.

“I’m feeling excited and ready to get back on the start line,” he said. Wilde spent his recovery in Austria at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center, where he worked with physiotherapists and coaches to get back to race fitness. Before his horrific crash, he was in remarkable shape. He not only ran that 10 km PB (the third-fastest time in New Zealand’s history), but he also won WTCS Abu Dhabi and T100 Singapore (a race he won by two and a half minutes).

“I’m nearly back to where I was post-Singapore,” he said. London might be a chance for Wilde to gauge just how far he has come in his recovery, but he said he believes he can return to full health before the next race on the T100 calendar, which is in the French Riviera at the end of August.

“I know I can probably get back to that shape,” he said. “I’m pretty confident I can get there by France.”

Anyone’s Race

While Wilde will be on everyone’s radar on Saturday, he’s far from the only big name in the men’s field. Geens has had a truly great past 12 months, with four podiums at 70.3 events (including wins at the world championship in New Zealand last December and 70.3 Geelong in March) and three T100 podiums (he won Lake Las Vegas in 2024, finished second in San Francisco this year and won Vancouver in June).

Jelle Geens has been on a tear over the past 12 months.

“I’m happy how the season has been going so far and I hope to get on the podium, or even the top step, again this weekend,” Geens said, adding that he enjoys how competitive T100 racing is. “[T100] reminds me a bit of my ITU days, where every race it’s against the best in the world. I really want to focus on this series … and have as many good races as possible before the final in Qatar.”

Geens will be a heavy favorite to take the win in London, but he won’t have an easy path to victory. Rico Bogen, the 2023 70.3 world champion, is in the field, and he is the man who beat Geens in San Francisco. Bogen’s fellow German, Mika Noodt, has raced all three T100 events so far this year, earning a pair of third-place finishes in San Francisco and Vancouver. He will be looking to lay down another podium result in London, and perhaps climb a step or two higher.

Smith is another athlete to watch on Saturday. The Kiwi has yet to reach the podium at a race in 2025, but after two second-place finishes on the T100 tour last year, he cannot be overlooked. He said he feels like he is in good form coming into London, and he believes he can have a good race on Saturday.

“I’m ready to put in a good performance and give it my all,” he said. “Hopefully I can just keep making those steps up the podium.”

Multiple IRONMAN and 70.3 champion Sam Long could also be in the mix, along with Olympic bronze medallist Frenchman Leo Bergere. T100 racing is never dull, and it’s safe to assume that Saturday’s race in London will live up to the hype.

The women’s race kicks off at 12 p.m. local time on Saturday, with the men following at 2:45 p.m. Click here to find out how you can tune in. The T100 Triathlon Live Data Dashboard is also available here.

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