The T100 Triathlon World Tour is pushing ahead with plans to stage its season finale in Qatar next month despite postponing a race in Saudi Arabia.
Conflict in the Middle East has plunged numerous sports events into uncertainty and this week caused organisers to shelve plans for the Saudi T100 in Jeddah on 27 and 28 November.
Scheduled races in Dubai on 14 November and Qatar, where the men’s and women’s T100 world champions are due to be crowned on 11 December, are still going ahead.
“We continue to monitor the situation in the Middle East and remain in regular contact with relevant authorities, partners and athletes,” a spokesperson for the Professional Triathletes Organisation, which runs the T100 Tour, told .
“The safety and security of all our athletes, staff and suppliers is our highest priority. At this time, our Dubai and Qatar races will go ahead as planned.”
Stay in the know
Three daily briefings with the key market moves and top business and political stories.
SUBSCRIBE HEREHow Middle East conflict has played havoc with sport calendar
The Saudi event has been pushed back to April next year following a decision made by the PTO in coordination with partners World Triathlon and the Saudi Triathlon Federation.
They said the decision followed “a joint review of the organisational and technical requirements and preparations for the inaugural edition in the Kingdom”.
The Middle East has heavily backed triathlon, with Visit Qatar becoming a major sponsor of the T100 Tour and Surj Sports Investments, an arm of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, taking a stake in the PTO.
Formula 1 has so far also stuck to its plans to stage the final two races of the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, on 29 November and 6 December respectively.
But Qatar has scrapped plans to stage rugby’s Nations Championship in 2028 and sponsor the competition more widely amid uncertainty caused by the security crisis.
Events in Saudi Arabia have been most affected, with the WTA Finals moved to the US and the Six Kings Slam delayed from October to December in tennis, January’s AFC Asian Cup postponed for a year in football, and the Dakar Rally relocated.