Interesting talk of the extent of “roll downs” for 70.3 WC with anyone willing being offered, and I thought the same even after IMUK hearing slots rolled down towards 15th.
What would opinion be here to a minimum number of roll downs to 70.3/Kona to keep the value of “qualifying” and prestige of event? Ideas include:
Limit to say double the number of slots
Or within certain time of % of age group winner/last slot? Say within 5% of last qualifying slot?
Obviously it would reduce IM income so will never actually happen…
It’s actually going the other way I think. In the 70.3 WC they are dropping 25 extra women only slots into a load of races.
They have the infrastructure for the men’s race, so it’s ‘free’ revenue to try and increase numbers for the women’s race which due to gender slot allocation has always had a smaller field.
For Taupo that really is going to be ‘anyone want it’ territory.
Interesting that look at some races will have top 10 in AG within say 20 minutes, whereas others like UK this year are less strength in depth.
My thread was mostly aimed at the occasions where theres invitations for anyone willing to sign up. But then if want to stop that then have to draw the line somewhere.
Been to New Zealand and spent a couple of days in Taupo. Very nice but not a big place at all. Once that Ironman waggon comes rolling in I’d imagine the top accommodation will get taken very quickly. If I were to go I’d consider hiring a motor home and have a bit of a road trip.
Same for Utah actually, loads of incredible national parks to visit there
Just out of interest, for age group worlds / euros and that kind of thing, are there limits on numbers qualifying if the field for an age group at a qualifying event is tiny? So if you came 2nd but there were only 2 people racing would you still qualify?
Yes I think so if there were still 2 slots for the age group. Heard few takes of oldest age groups only having one automatic slot and only one person in them @TriTriTriAgain
I guess it’s fairly well accustomed after 20+ years of hosting IMNZ, but agree that two days of 70.3 Worlds is a different beast on available accommodation.
Taupo was actually really nice. The local natural spa was great, and I skydived there. But we were camping the whole way around NZ, so I actually have no memory of the general scale of the place for more normal accommodation options.
Are you talking Ironman, or ITU/ETU? Your reference to “euros” makes me think maybe the latter.
For Ironman, as Chris says, it’s a simple case of the allocated slot(s) stick to that AG until they run out of people, then it might pass to another AG in that gender. So technically you could get a slot if you were stone cold last if everyone else declined.
For ITU/ETU, the BTF set their own standards. You have to bewithin 115/120% respectively of the AG winners time, to be eligible. For an auto Q, you then have to be top 3 (for sprint and standard distance - middle and up is just race time submission). Remaining slots in that AG (there are normally 15 or 20 per AG from memory) are allocated by roll down to those with the lowest percentage versus the AG winner of whichever race they did. That’s the rough approach anyway, the full detail is all on the BTF site.
It occurs to me that if I did a IM70.3 this year with a solid finish, I’d probably get AWA status looking at my points from Hamburg. However. It’s unlikely I’ll get away with doing say Weymouth in Sep, and the point of it would actually be…
Yeah, AWA doesnt mean much. Maybe for people who are aiming to be very competitive and therefore want to get a primary racking spot. If you had your eye on a very popular full distance, then it allows you to get priority registration which could save you a fair bit of money by getting in a tier 1, but I’m fairly sure you said you werent planning on another long distance next year
