Doha, for Kate and Hayden

Here we are in Qatar, where the T100 Triathlon World Tour brings the season to a close with a fast and challenging course for its decisive grand finale. Doha, the final destination of the 2025 tour, is where the entire season came to head. After 100 kilometres (62 miles) of decision-making, effort and control, our athletes Hayden Wilde and Kate Waugh crossed the finish line as winners of the competition and world champions of the T100 tour.

The T100 is for athletes who aren’t fond of taking shortcuts. It brings together an exclusive selection of the best triathletes and puts them face to face with a course that demands a perfectly balanced performance time and time again: a 2km swim, 80km bike and 18km run. It’s a distance that leaves athletes no room for improvisation or to hide their weaknesses. Throughout the year, each race builds a ranking that results in a grand finale filled with decisive moments. 

Doha wasn’t just the last big date on the calendar. Its series of loops, designed to favour strategy, recovery and well-thought out attacks, began with a swim in the bay which quickly secured each athlete’s position, followed by a bike which tempted athletes to go all out but punished those who gave too much too soon, and a run which forced athletes to manage their remaining energies with utmost care.

In the men’s competition, Hayden Wilde gave us both a solid and intelligent performance. He built up his game starting with the swim, remaining in the leading group and avoiding wasting any time. In the bike stage he consistently gained ground, but the true plot twist would come later. When transitioning to the run, now in the leading position, he developed a strong and consistent rhythm and started to pull away from the rest of the group. He crossed the finish line in 3:06:08, claiming not only victory in Qatar, but the T100 world title.

His triumph has a special meaning behind it. Wilde’s season has been marked by consistency and several victories, as well as by having overcome an accident that put the brakes on his year. Doha was the perfect end to the season: a confirmation that consistent performance, patience and confidence in the process continue to be the basis for top level triathlon.

The women’s race played out differently; it was a closer competition, but equally as tough a challenge. Kate Waugh remained in the leading group from start to finish. She got herself into a good position in the swim, kept her energy levels steady and avoided making mistakes in the bike stage. During the run, she waited for the right moment to shine. When the time came, she gave it her all. These final kilometres of the race marked the difference necessary for her to cross the finish line in 3:31:30 and to seal her victory in Doha.

Thanks to this feat, Waugh was declared champion of the T100 tour following a season built on perseverance and consistency. She started the year with a win in Singapore and arrived in Qatar with her options wide open. Here, when pressure reached its maximum and room for error was at a minimum, she responded with the same resilience she’s demonstrated throughout the entire tour.

It’s no coincidence that two Orca athletes have been crowned champion in the same grand finale. The T100 rewards not only talent, but the ability to keep up a consistent performance over several months, to be physically and mentally prepared on the decisive day and to trust in every decision made along the way. In Doha, Hayden Wilde and Kate Waugh demonstrated exactly that.

The 2025 T100 season has been drawn to a close, leaving us with a crystal clear image of two world champions crossing the finish line in Qatar. It was a final that showed us it’s not just about the race, but everything that came before it in order to win when it matters most.