Some major shuffling in the Kona Pro Rankings (KPR) took place after this weekend's 2-Ironman races and one Ironman 70.3 race. The major news is that both Faris Al-Sultan and Virginia Berasategui validate their Ironman Qualifying requirement and help their chances for a starting spot at the Ironman World Championship race in Kona in October.
Positions in the Women's Kona Pro Rankings where juggled around; many moving up in the rankings with those not racing moving down spots. Caroline Steffen jumps to the top of the Women's KPR rankings with her win at Ironman European Championship. Yvonne Van Vlerken settles in right behind her in second place with her fourth place finish in Frankfurt, up from 10th position. Heleen Bij de Vaate moves into the Top 10 with her ninth place finish in Frankfurt. Virginia Berasategui who DNF'd at Ironman Austria did what she needed to do, enter the Ironman European Championship race. She finishes in 10th place. Not only did she gain valuable points in the P-4000 race to move her into 17th spot, but she also validates her one Ironman race requirement at the same time.
Silvia Felt who was on the bubble two weeks ago enters the Top 25 along with Sonja Tajsich and Lucie Zelenkova who were farther down in the rankings. Felt get the 14th spot while Tajsich get the 12th positions. Zelenkova's second place finish in Frankfurt moves her to 19th spot. Moving down several positions in the KPR are Kate Bevilaqua, Kim Loeffler, Caitlin Snow, Linsey Corbin and Amanda Stevens who rounds out the Top 25.
Moving out of the rankings this week are Maki Nishiuchi, Joanna Lawn and Chrissie Wellington who moves into the 28th position. Samantha Warriner moves up and is just outside of the Top 25 in 26th spot with her first place finish in Frankfurt.
It appears that Faris Al-Sultan can relax a bit after extending his Ironman season with his great win in Frankfurt. Not only did he get a nice paycheck, he validates his one race requirement and moves all the way up from 38th spot to 4th. Jan Raphael who finished behind Al-Sultan also moves up quite a bit, from 35th to 6th spot. TJ Tollakson's win at Ironman Lake Placid proves significant if he wants to go to Kona. He moves into the Top 40 Kona Pro Rankings on the men's side from a bubble position and settles into 24th spot. Ben Hoffman's second place finish in Lake Placid move him up just past Tollakson; he's now in 22nd spot, up from 24th.
Eduardo Sturla now in 8th, Cameron Brown now in 15th and Patrick Vernay now in 25th all moved up with their finishes this weekend. Michael Göhner's third place in Frankfurt helps him enter the Top 40 Men along with Luke Mckenzie's who was sixth. Most of the men that were in the middle of the rankings move down several spots and will need to focus on the action ahead if they want to qualify in the July selection or for sure make the August cut.
Moving out of the Top 40 are Paul Amey, Daniel Fontana, Matthew White. If the selection were today, Amey would get a spot being giving up by Chris McCormack who previously stated he would not be raining in Hawaii this year.
Andreas and Michael Raelert still need to do their one requirement race if they want to get to Kona this year. Michael was set to possibly validate his requirement but had to pull out of the Ironman European Championship before the race with a hip injury. Andreas is on the starting list for Ironman Regensburg which takes place after the initial cut-off on July 31st.
Sofie Goos who won Ironman 70.3 Antwerp and holds steady in the rankings as does Axel Zeebroek who took second place in Antwerp.
2011 Kona Pro Rankings Standings
| Male Pro | Points | Rank |
Female Pro | Points | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timothy O'Donnell | USA | 7520 | 1 |
Caroline Steffen | CHE | 12650 |
| Raynard Tissink | ZAF | 7240 | 2 |
Yvonne Van Vlerken | NLD | 9070 |
| Eneko Llanos | ESP | 7100 | 3 |
Mirinda Carfrae | AUS | 8965 |
| Faris Al-Sultan | DEU | 7060 | 4 |
Karin Thuerig | CHE | 7710 |
| Marino Vanhoenacker | BEL | 6900 | 5 |
Tyler Stewart | USA | 7480 |
| Jan Raphael | DEU | 6800 | 6 |
Leanda Cave | GBR | 7470 |
| Luke Bell | AUS | 6515 | 7 |
Julie Dibens | GBR | 7400 |
| Eduardo Sturla | ARG | 6380 | 8 |
Heleen Bij de Vaate | NLD | 7180 |
| Timo Bracht | DEU | 6300 | 9 |
Kelly Williamson | USA | 7030 |
| Craig Alexander | AUS | 6190 | 10 |
Amy Marsh | USA | 6920 |
| Jozsef Major | HUN | 6120 | 11 |
Rachel Joyce | GBR | 6760 |
| Chris McCormack | AUS | 6000* | 12 |
Sonja Tajsich | DEU | 6275 |
| Andreas Raelert | DEU | 5900* | 13 |
Catriona Morrison | GBR | 6250 |
| Peter Jacobs | AUS | 5650 | 14 |
Silvia Felt | DEU | 6170 |
| Cameron Brown | NZL | 5380 | 15 |
Heather Wurtele | CAN | 6165 |
| Frederik Van Lierde | BEL | 5290 | 16 |
Erika Csomor | HUN | 6120 |
| Petr Vabrousek | CZE | 5200 | 17 |
Virginia Berasategui | ESP | 6050 |
| Ronnie Schildknecht | CHE | 5165 | 18 |
Tine Deckers | BEL | 5870 |
| Maik Twelsiek | DEU | 5070 | 19 |
Lucie Zelenkova | CZE | 5805 |
| Luke Mckenzie | AUS | 4965 | 20 |
Sofie Goos | BEL | 5630 |
| Mathias Hecht | CHE | 4925 | 21 |
Kate Bevilaqua | AUS | 5525 |
| Ben Hoffman | USA | 4910 | 22 |
Kim Loeffler | USA | 5410 |
| Michael Weiss | AUT | 4905 | 23 |
Caitlin Snow | USA | 5305 |
| Tj Tollakson | USA | 4870 | 24 |
Linsey Corbin | USA | 5245 |
| Patrick Vernay | FRA | 4790 | 25 |
Amanda Stevens | USA | 5160 |
| Axel Zeebroek | BEL | 4710 | 26 |
|||
| Chris Lieto | USA | 4680 | 27 |
|||
| Andy Potts | USA | 4400 | 28 |
|||
| Balazs Csoke | HUN | 4360 | 29 |
|||
| Patrick Evoe | USA | 4345 | 30 |
|||
| Sergio Marques | PRT | 4200 | 31 |
|||
| James Cunnama | ZAF | 4160 | 32 |
|||
| Dirk Bockel | LUX | 4100 | 33 |
|||
| Rasmus Henning | DNK | 4020 | 34 |
|||
| Michael Göhner | DEU | 3890 | 35 |
|||
| Tom Lowe | GBR | 3790 | 36 |
|||
| Mike Schifferle | CHE | 3760 | 37 |
|||
| Michael Lovato | USA | 3650 | 38 |
|||
| Joe Gambles | AUS | 3535 | 39 |
|||
| Cyril Viennot | FRA | 3500 | 40 |
|||
| Paul Amey (GBR), Daniel Fontana (ITA), Matthew White (AUS) | Samantha Warriner (NZL), Uli Bromme (USA), Chrissie Wellington (GBR) | |||||
Rankings as of 07/25/11, * = Missing 2011 Ironman race requirement
This was the final weekend before the Top 40 male and Top 25 female pros in the KPR as of July 31, 2011 (July Qualifiers) would be selected to race in Kona. Those that don't make the first selection still have time to do another race if they want to before the final highest scoring 10 males and 5 females get selected on August 31, 2011 (August Qualifiers). Up next for KPR points before July 31st is Ironman UK and Ironman 70.3 Calgary.
Find out more about the new Ironman World Championship qualifying process here: www.ironmanpromembership.com
Related Posts:
- Current 2011 Kona Pro Rankings Standings as of 07/11/11
- Current 2011 Kona Pro Rankings Standings as of 7/04/11
- Current 2011 Kona Pro Rankings Standings as of 6/27/11
