Brownlee to race IM Western Australia

How much has that missed time after the crash set him back? I guess might have been sooner into ITU racing and therefore be coming into Olympic year with more experience.

A good 6 months out, then in 2018 he focused more on his run for the british champs and then the Euros after qualifying

Surprised at this. He’s still hedging his bets re Tokyo and Kona. Can’t see that ending well, sadly.

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I tend to agree. He’s said previously that, and I might not be quoting entirely accurately,” it’s all endurance training”. I don’t think anyone else sees the similarities in Olympic and long course prep that way.

After Rio he said he’d take 2 years to try long course then two years out from Tokyo he’d commit either way.

I wonder if there will be any serious players at Busselton, full start list is not yet up. But it does seem that ‘get your KQ sorted right after this year’s Kona’ is becoming a more popular option under the new qualifying regime, so there may well be.

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The “new” regime being the old way?
Or is it slightly different this time round?

I dropped out around the time the KPR was introduced.

Win a race. Go to Kona.
Seems simple to me?

Except it’s not quite that simple, because some times 2nd is good enough.
Unless you’re a women.

Can you explain? Do women have an unfair advantage? Or vice versa?

Genuinely interested. Not asking from a rampant feminist’s point of view.

Certainly way way more men do long distance tri than women.

I believe there are less slots for FPro than Mpro, so 2nd is less likely to get you in.

Age group wise F40-44 has about a quarter of the slots that M40-44 had, so again, you have to place higher.

Although I suspect the size of the field means that your overall probability of KQ is not reduced, but increased. Just imo of course.

Before the KPR points system, in addition to the Pro slots in events the top-10 in Kona auto qualified for the following year; they didn’t even have to validate. So getting into the top-10 was a big deal! I think that system with a validation would be a good approach.

Winning Kona used to mean lifetime ‘KQ’ but they cut that to 5 years too. Although I’m certain if a multiple winner asked to do it they’d give them a place.

I think Frodeno will want one more crown, to elevate himself above Reid & Crowie. Then spend the rest of his years thinking ‘what if’ on the six.

When the new pro qualification rules were brought in some thought it would mean even number of male and female pros qualifying for Kona instead of the old 50/35 split. Turns out that’s not the case because some races have more than 1 place available and the extra slots are allocated based on the number of starters. To the extent that some races last year had 4 slots and were split 3/1 male/female. So while female pros pretty much have to win their race to qualify (outside area champs races or roll downs), men can rely on a podium place in some of the smaller races.

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Get you! Thanks.

Interesting. Thanks for your insight.

Ha ha - I just can’t get my head around running a 3h marathon, and at the end of an Ironman.

The Coachcox website has loads of stats on this stuff.
Age group KQ: https://www.coachcox.co.uk/ironman-world-championship-qualification/

If I can shave four hours of my IM times at UK, Wales or Lanza before I die of old age, I could qualify! :grin:

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Think it’s top 3 now that just have to validate for next year? Could maybe extend that to top 5 but I think top 10 would be a bit much.

@joex - Just win Kona and then you can qualify for next year.

I think ironman realised that it was daft that you can qualify for the following year before Kona by winning an IM like Wales but not at Kona.

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