Marten Van Riel performed under pressure to clinch the inaugural men's T100 world title with Grand Final gold in Dubai.

The Belgian athlete kicked on in the final few kilometres to leave Rico Bogen in the dust and take the maiden crown.

Bogen beat the Dubai heat to take second in the race, and third overall in the standings, whilst a resurgent Alistair Brownlee clinched his first podium of the season with bronze.

Van Riel came into the Grand Final with plenty of pressure on his shoulders and the title within reach, after claiming two wins and a runners-up finish from his three starts in the series.

The 31-year-old showed no fear with a strong swim, composed cycle and clinical run seeing him take the tape and the first ever T100 world title.

"It was really tough wearing that number one bib because in my head I knew that a podium was near and so it's hard to go for the win," he said.

"I tried not to think too much about the title and just go for the win on the day.

"Rico is really good at keeping the pace high but when I did my first surge and we dropped Kyle [Smith], I could see he was suffering a bit so I knew I was going to try."

It brings to an end a rollercoaster of a year for Van Riel who was left disappointed with a 22nd place finish at the Paris 2024 Olympics, throwing himself into the middle-distance event and seeing success rain down from all angles.

He added: "Winning the T100 series has been the goal this year and what has kept me up and not doubt my Olympic Games as I knew my shape was way better than what I showed there. It was really good to go straight into the T100 Series and it's definitely made this a great season.

"It's all the difficult moments that make the difficult ones more beautiful."

Reigning 70.3 World Champion Bogen was the closest challenge to Van Riel on the day, sticking to him for 15km of the 18km run, but couldn't match the surge of the Belgian with just minutes to go.

A second-place finish was his second podium of the season, following a bronze in San Francisco, and pushed the German up to third in the overall rankings.

Known for his success in colder climates, Bogen was thrilled to prove the doubters wrong and beat the heat to become the world bronze medallist.

"I'm so proud and now I can say that I can do this," he said.

"I wanted to prove it to the world and I knew I'm fit from my training and could do it. Now I know I can do both cold and heat.

"My coach and I focussed on this day and the Grand Final so I'm proud to get it done.

"It was tense before the race because I thought I could do it so it's crazy to hear I'm third."

Brownlee left the best until last in Dubai, overhauling New Zealand's Kyle Smith in the final stages of the run to clinch his first T100 podium.

A turbulant season saw battle injury and penalty boxes keep the Brit from the top three.

Brownlee nearly saw fate ripped from his hands once more, slipping on some gravel whilst turning a corner on the run, but battled back to reach the third step for the first time in seven races.

"I needed some stars to align and thankfully they did today," he said.

"The fall was just when I caught [Kyle Smith] as well, it couldn't have been worse timing but in terms of the things that could have gone wrong, that was minor.

"Very rarely things are going to go perfect and you have to train and prepare for things that can do well."