KONA IMWC – Should it still go ahead?
To give some context this article is being written at the start of April 2020, no announcement has been given by Ironman as yet regarding its championship events.
Kona, Hawaii – the home to the Ironman World Championships. Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak across the world many of events in the sport world have been cancelled or postponed until later this year, none less so than in triathlon. Challenge Family recently announced that its flagship event Challenge Roth 2020 has been cancelled with many other of its events cancelled or postponed until later this year. The story isn’t much different over at Ironman with much of its Asia, Europe and American schedule undergoing a reshuffle.
The Ironman world championships is set to take place in October 2020. However, with the current global situation of COVID-19 is it safe to hold such a large global event and is there enough time for athletes to prepare, qualify and race the world championships safely and competitively?
The first of many problems Ironman is facing is the cancellation or postponement of qualification events. The qualification period started at the end of 2019 and runs until the 23rd August 2020. There are 20 male and female pros that have qualified so far through already held Ironman events and finish on podiums at 2019 IMWC and/or IM70.3WC. Their spots are secure along with a handful of age group athletes. With each week that goes past the qualification period is being more and more compress with athletes across the world unable to train at full capacity for multiple lockdown rules. Having a compressed qualification period, does that put the athlete’s health at risk in training and racing with the pressure to compete and train in order to qualify in time?
Could the alternative to this be that they extend the qualification period out by a month? This could prove tricky with typical Kona builds are around 12 weeks long to avoid things like injury or sickness. Again, we ask could this put the athletes at risk. If Ironman decide to keep the same qualification period for that reason, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to give out more slots at races and/or put on more races during that period to aid athletes looking to qualify.
There could be an alternative to both of these previous suggestions. The first being the most unlikely that Ironman and Challenge Family join forces to host qualification events and host an Ironman Challenge Partnership World Championships. Very unlikely but it’s an idea. The second being that they run a points system from the last 2 years of racing. Excluding pros already qualified, a points system based on the results of Ironman distance pro races from the last two years, plus the results from the 70.3WC 2018 & 2019. This would create a ranking system for those aiming to qualify for the final remaining slots. Such similar points systems have been used in the past, this could present a safe way to qualify if the current qualification period is too compressed or races can not go ahead.
The final option is that you postpone Kona to later in the year to a time in maybe December when you have had the 70.3 WC in November and the 70.3 Champs then become part of an athletes training build typical of a normal season for many athletes. For now, health must be the priority, the impact for athletes and its racing events bodies is profound with performance and financial ramifications being felt globally. Nobody knows how long COVID-19 will impact our lives as athletes, competitors and event’s organisers. At the time we try to enjoy a sport we love in the capacity that we can, and time will tell on the global health crisis and the biggest long course endurance event of the triathlon calendar.
Article written by Elite Ironman 70.3 athlete Harrison Rolls King. Harrison has a BSc in Sport and Exercise Science with Nutrition.
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