Young Pretenders to lay claim to the Throne of Triathlon at Challenge-Daytona
Four of the last eight wild card spots have been published by the Professional Triathlon Organisation for the PTO 2020 Championship at Challenge-Daytona and a chance to pursue the landmark $1,000,000 million purse.
Two of the places go to young pretenders Sam Long and Magus Ditlevfor them to lay claim to the Throne of Triathlon. Both of them are in the 20’s and will attempt to overthrow the old guard to take the title of King of Triathlon forlong course racing. The passion, energy, and verve of these two young bloods are contagious and both are leading the next generation of superstars in long course triathlon.
The other two place go to Danielle Dingman and Renee Kiley. Women who represent the unique time-honoured tradition of age-groupers progressing to the professional ranks. Both were on their way to breakout seasons and poised to move up the PTO World Rankings for 2020 when COVID-19 struck, eliminating all opportunities to advance up the rankings into automatic qualifying spots.
$1,000,0000 – Challenge Daytona World Championship Prize Fund
CATEGORIES
Broadly speaking, there are three main categories of athletes who will be considered for a wildcard selection:
1) Previous Historical Performance
2) World Class ITU Short Course Athletes
3) Up and Coming Athletes
WHO’S IN?:
Sam Long at only 24, is nicknamed ‘Big Unit’ for his 6-foot-4-inch athletic frame. He has already won an Ironman, four 70.3’s, a marathon, and is a USA State TT champion, solidifying his rising-star status on the long-course circuit. His dream is to get the top accolades in triathlon and he does things his way and just like his stature his does them big.
Magnus Ditlev claimed victory at 2020 Enea IRONMAN 70.3 Gdynia with an impressive performance. The Dane came out of water in 18th place, roughly 40 seconds behind the leader. However, what he did on the first, uphill part of the bike course was simply beyond belief. He hammered extremely strong taking the lead quickly and building the gap up to over 6 minutes into T2 big enough for him to run to victory.
Danielle Dingman is former All-American track & field athlete which showed when she was the faster runner at 70.3 Dubai race earlier this year, jumping from fifth at T2, all the way up to second spot. Dingman’s victory at the PTO Supported Bear Lake triathlon, besting the PTO World No. 10, clearly indicated the USA based athlete was in good enough form to be awarded a wildcard spot.
Renee Kiley is an Australian athlete who has wealth experience of long-distance racing as an age-grouper progressing to the professional ranks in 2017. Kiley’s performance at Ironman Cairns (Asia-Pac Championships) where she made the podium as 3rd Pro was at the level of an automatic qualifier for her to be given a wildcard spot.
They join the other wildcard choices of Vincent Luis, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Kristian Blummenfelt, Nicola Spirig, Flora Duffy, Gustav Iden, Jess Learmonth, Tim Don, Jonny Brownlee, Henri Schoeman, Lisa Norden and Angela Naeth who have all been selected to join the 80 automatic qualifiers on the start line for the PTO 2020 Championship.
The top 80 men and women in PTO World Rankings who automatically qualify can be found here:
