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Abu Dhabi to Host Opening Race of Global World Triathlon Championship Series 2024

Abu Dhabi will welcome the MENA region’s only WTC event in March. WAM
Abu Dhabi will welcome the MENA region’s only WTC event in March. WAM
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Abu Dhabi to Host Opening Race of Global World Triathlon Championship Series 2024

Abu Dhabi will welcome the MENA region’s only WTC event in March. WAM
Abu Dhabi will welcome the MENA region’s only WTC event in March. WAM

Abu Dhabi Sports Council is once again hosting the season-opening event of the World Triathlon Championship Series 2024, running from March 8-9.

Following Abu Dhabi’s successful hosting of 2022’s Championship Finals, for the ninth year, the capital city will welcome the MENA region’s only WTC event, before the series heads to Yokohama, Japan; Cagliari, Italy; Hamburg, Germany; Montreal, Canada; culminating in the Championship Finals in Malaga, Spain

Organizers confirmed that the prestigious World Triathlon Championship Series opening round will take place across the waterways, tracks and roads of Yas Marina Circuit, with competitors ending their race on the iconic F1 start line, right in front of the Main Grandstand.

Expected to attract the world's best athletes who will be racing for precious Olympic or Paralympic qualifying points as they gear up to race in the Paris Games this summer, 270 elite and para elite triathletes will compete across four categories – the World Triathlon Championship Men’s and Women’s Sprint race, the Para World Cup and the Elite Mixed Team Relay.

Alongside the elite races, thousands of age group and junior triathletes, cyclists and runners will participate in the community races.

Hailed as the largest and most inclusive triathlon event in the Middle East, the schedule boasts fifteen different community race categories catering to all ages, abilities and fitness levels, and includes dedicated races for athletes of determination.

Exciting additions for the 2024 edition are community single discipline community running and cycling races, which offer runners and cyclists a chance to be part of this global triathlon event.

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Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
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Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)

Local driver Yazeed Al Rajhi took advantage of a miserable stage by South Africa's Henk Lategan to grab the Dakar Rally lead in the Saudi Arabia desert on Tuesday.

Lategan led the Dakar for the past week, but errors and bad luck on the 357-kilometer ninth stage from Riyadh south-east to Haradh turned his overall lead of more than five minutes over Al Rajhi into a potentially decisive seven-minute deficit.

The rally has effectively two days and 400 kilometers remaining in the dunes of the Empty Quarter. The last day, Friday, is a ceremonial drive to the finish line in Shubaytah.

Al Rajhi, like Lategan, has never won the Dakar. This is the Saudi's 11th attempt with a best finish of third in 2022. He'd been lying second since last Wednesday. The title race appears to be between only them.

Third-placed Mattias Ekström of Sweden and five-time champion Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar were about 25 minutes behind.

“It's a bit of disaster to be honest,” Lategan said. “About 13 kilometers in we got lost. We thought we missed the waypoint but we actually had it. When we got lost we got one puncture and then towards the end we got another one and the wheel is actually flat. So, it was a messy, messy, messy day for us but it's not the end of the world, we're still in it.”

Lategan and navigator Brett Cummings were 11th on the stage and Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk third.

“We did a great job like we planned to,” Al Rajhi said. “We pushed well. We enjoyed it, that's the most important. I hope everything goes well the next two or three days to win the Dakar ... I will fight to win. It won't be easy.”

Al-Attiyah won the stage ahead of Belgium’s Guillaume de Mévius in under three hours to rise to one minute off third place overall.

His 49th car stage win, and first in the Dakar for Romanian manufacturer Dacia, lifted him to only one behind the record jointly held by Finland's Ari Vatanen and France's Stephane Peterhansel.

Sanders cushions motorbike lead Australian rider Daniel Sanders bolstered his motorbike lead to nearly 15 minutes when closest challenger, Spain's Tosha Schareina, crashed early.

The back wheel of Schareina's Honda hit a rock and sent him flying only 20 kilometers in. He resumed racing but the nearly four minutes he finished behind Sanders dropped him in the general standings.

Schareina's teammate Adrien van Beveren of France remained third, more than 20 minutes behind, while Sanders' KTM teammate Luciano Benavides of Argentina strengthened his position in fourth place by winning his second successive stage.

Benavides, thanks to collecting time bonuses of nearly five minutes by opening the way, beat Van Beveren by nearly two minutes, and repeated his win into Haradh two years ago. Sanders was third after leading until about 70 kilometers from the end.

“I only got lost a couple of times ... and lost a little bit of time,” Sanders said. “I could have pushed and made some more (time) but it's not too bad.”