The once-niche sport of Triathlon has rounded off a successful season of rewarding its Olympic and elite athletes, after the Dubai World Championships culminated the T100 race series on Sunday, with $7 million (Rs 59 cr) dispersed.

The T100 featured eight star-studded races comprising a 2km swim, 80km bike and 18km run that last typically around a TV-friendly three hours, reported Reuters.

Belgian Marten Van Riel overcame the challenge of German Rico Bogen to secure the inaugural men’s T100 triathlon world championship title, while American Taylor Knibb, took the inaugural women’s T100 title on Saturday.

Knibb, 26, won Dubai with temperatures reaching 31 degrees Celsius (87.8°F) in the emirate, and after a perfect streak with wins in San Francisco, Ibiza, Lake Las Vegas, and Dubai, earned $310,000 (~ Rs 2 cr, 61 lakh) in prize money in the inaugural T100 season.

Races spanned Miami in March, before moving to Singapore, California, London, Ibiza, Las Vegas and Dubai, before culminating in a November Grand Final in the Middle East.

Each race had a $250,000 prize fund (~ Rs 2 cr 11 lakh) including $25,000 (~Rs 21 lakh) for the winner.

The overall men’s and women’s winners collected $210,000 (~Rs 1 cr 77 lakh) from an additional total prize pool of $2 million (~ Rs 16 cr 88 lakh).

This was in addition to athlete contracts and T100 Triathlon World Tour pool, the entire series offering more than $7 million (~Rs 59 crore) in compensation which is considered huge money for the sport.

The cash-rich T100, though nowhere close to marathon earnings, drew the top 40 athletes from different distances. It was shorter than Ironman’s 3.5km swim, 180km bike and 42 km run, but much longer than the Olympic distance of 1500m, 40km, and 10km.