Last year the World Triathlon Corporation implemented a new twist to the qualification process for upcoming Ironman World Championship races for the professional triathletes. Athletes will no longer be able to qualify for Kona with a single race finish. Now we have the Kona Pro Rankings (KPR), a new ranking system to help determine which pro athlete will be eligible to compete at the Ironman World Championship triathlon in Hawaii. The new procedure will limit the number of professional triathletes racing in the event. Now the top 40 male and top 25 female pros in the KPR as of July 31, 2011 will be qualified to race in the 2011 Ironman World Championship race.
Before this past weekend, several professional triathletes including Craig Alexander and Julie Dibens did not have their ticket to Kona locked in due to the new requirement. Earlier this year Alexander was due to race Ironman Australia but had to pull out due to an illness, forcing him to scramble and find another Ironman race to enter.
The good news is this past weekend both Dibens and Alexander validated their one Ironman race requirement with wins at Ironman Coeur d'Alene and now are both in the top 10. With her second place finish behind Dibens Catlin Snow also got locked in to race in Kona. Silvia Felt won Ironman France this past weekend move into the top 25 females and right now has a starting slot for Kona.
Some key professionals who have done well in the past years still need to validate their Kona spots with and Ironman race. Most notably are the Raelert brothers who need to do so if they want a chance at the Million Dollar offer from K-Swiss (K-Swiss Issues $1 Million Challenge to Raelerts). Marino van Hoenacker, Ronnie Schildknecht, Michael Weiss, Faris Al-Sultan, Virginia Berasategui have enough points in the rankings but still have not validated their one Ironman race requirement. Here are the current standings in the Kona Pro Rankings.
2011 Kona Pro Rankings Standings
| Male Pro | Points | Rank |
Female Pro | Points | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timothy O’Donnell | USA | 7520 | 1 |
Mirinda Carfrae | AUS | 8965 |
| Raynard Tissink | ZAF | 7240 | 2 |
Caroline Steffen | CHE | 8650 |
| Eneko Llanos | ESP | 7100 | 3 |
Leanda Cave | GBR | 7470 |
| Luke Bell | AUS | 6515 | 4 |
Julie Dibens | GBR | 7400 |
| Timo Bracht | DEU | 6300 | 5 |
Kelly Williamson | USA | 6870 |
| Chris McCormack | AUS | 6000* | 6 |
Rachel Joyce | GBR | 6760 |
| Craig Alexander | AUS | 5950 | 7 |
Tyler Stewart | USA | 6360 |
| Andreas Raelert | DEU | 5900* | 8 |
Yvonne Van Vlerken | NLD | 6270 |
| Pete Jacobs | AUS | 5650 | 9 |
Catriona Morrison | GBR | 6250 |
| Jozsef Major | HUN | 5400 | 10 |
Karin Thuerig | CHE | 5710* |
| Frederik Van Lierde | BEL | 5290 | 11 |
Caitlin Snow | USA | 5305 |
| Petr Vabrousek | CZE | 5200 | 12 |
Kim Loeffler | USA | 5250 |
| Maik Twelsiek | DEU | 5070 | 13 |
Linsey Corbin | USA | 5245 |
| Eduardo Sturla | ARG | 4980 | 14 |
Amy Marsh | USA | 5160 |
| Marino Vanhoenacker | BEL | 4900* | 15 |
Amanda Stevens | USA | 5160 |
| Chris Lieto | USA | 4290 | 16 |
Sofie Goos | BEL | 5130 |
| Axel Zeebroek | BEL | 4270 | 17 |
Chrissie Wellington | GBR | 4750 |
| James Cunnama | ZAF | 4160 | 18 |
Heather Wurtele | CAN | 4465 |
| Dirk Bockel | LUX | 4100 | 19 |
Virginia Berasategui | ESP | 4450* |
| Rasmus Henning | DNK | 4020 | 20 |
Joanna Lawn | NZL | 4290 |
| Patrick Evoe | USA | 3955 | 21 |
Heleen Bij De Vaate | NLD | 4200 |
| Michael Lovato | USA | 3690 | 22 |
Tine Deckers | BEL | 4110 |
| Andy Potts | USA | 3650 | 23 |
Silvia Felt | DEU | 4090 |
| Paul Amey | GBR | 3380 | 24 |
Desiree Ficker | USA | 4050 |
| Mathias Hecht | CHE | 3365 | 25 |
Erika Csomor | HUN | 3910 |
| Jan Raphael | DEU | 3280 | 26 |
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| Daniel Fontana | ITA | 3200 | 27 |
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| Ronnie Schildknecht | CHE | 3165* | 28 |
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| Michael Weiss | AUT | 3145* | 29 |
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| Cameron Brown | NZL | 3135 | 30 |
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| Matthew White | AUS | 3085 | 31 |
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| Faris Al-Sultan | DEU | 3060* | 32 |
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| Patrick Vernay | NCL | 3030 | 33 |
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| Courtney Ogden | AUS | 3025 | 34 |
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| Michael Raelert | DEU | 3000* | 35 |
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| Joe Gambles | AUS | 2950 | 36 |
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| Tj Tollakson | USA | 2928 | 37 |
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| Sergio Marques | PRT | 2880 | 38 |
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| Terenzo Bozzone | NZL | 2860 | 39 |
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| Ben Hoffman | USA | 2810 | 40 |
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Mike Schifferle (CHE), Joe McDaniel (USA), Andreas Boecherer (DEU), Justin Daerr (USA), Max Longree (DEU), Balazs Csoke (HUN), Luke Mckenzie (AUS) |
Kate Bevilaqua (AUS), Uli Bromme (USA) | |||||
Rankings as of 06/27/11, * = Missing 2011 Ironman race requirement
Professionals on the bubble with their one Ironman requirement validated; waiting to see what happens and/or looking for additional valuable points include: Andreas Boecherer, Max Longree, Luke Mckenzie, Matty Reed, Kate Bevilaqua and Belinda Granger.
The one big difference this year and upcoming years is that the pros need to participate and complete at least one Ironman race during the qualifying year. Before, pros who finished in the Top 10 in Kona the prior year would automatically qualify to race. Now they get valuable qualifying points from racing and finishing in Kona.
This new rule has changed the entire playing field. Now you see Ironman races that usually had small pro fields having many more athletes racing and trying to get their requirement and qualifying points.
Athletes may accumulate points from any combination of races including Ironman 70.3 Series races PROVIDED that each athlete completes at least one full-distance Ironman race during the Qualifying Year. Scoring points in Kona DOES NOT fulfill the requirement that each ranked athlete must score in a full-distance Ironman during the Qualifying Year. "Qualifying Year" means the period between September 1 and August 31.
Find out more about the new Ironman World Championship qualifying process here: www.ironmanpromembership.com
