With the final events for the 2011 qualifying for both the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Las Vegas and The Ironman World Championship in Kailua- Kona keeping everyone’s attention  – qualifying for the 2012 70.3 is underway with 3 ‘overlapping’ Ironman 70.3 events in Yeppooon, Timberman and Brazil.

The most up to date listing for the 2012 70.3PR qualifying year is now posted, along with the current 70.3PR Rankings.

Coming up this weekend with the innaugral Ironman 70.3 Ireland, the 2012 KPR will get underway.  The most up to date listing of events and information will be posted shortly.

The World Triathlon Corporation has published the World Triathlon Corporation Anti-Doping Rules (“WTC Anti-Doping Rules”), Version 4, which will be in force beginning September 1, 2011.

These Anti-Doping Rules contain only minor revisions and updates to the WTC Anti-Doping Rules, Version 3, published January 2010.  The World Anti-Doping Agency (“WADA”) confirmed that these rules continue to successfully incorporate all the mandatory articles of the 2009 World Anti-Doping Code (‘the Code’).

A full summary of key changes to the WTC Anti-Doping Rules can be found at: http://ironmanpromembership.com/anti-doping/rules-2/.

This past weekend was a relatively quiet one with the Ironman70.3 Timberman (P-500)  not making much impact to the KPR.

The current KPR rankings have been formatted a little differently going into this last week for ease of reference to see which athletes have qualified (Q), are automatic qualifiers(AQ), those who declined their slots as July qualifiers (DECL) and athletes who have met the mandatory Ironman qualification criteria (*) at this time.

With three final events coming up next weekend – Subaru Ironman Canada (P-2000), Ford Ironman Louisville (P-1000) and Ironman 70.3 Brazil (P-750), the final 10 slots for Men and 5 slots for the Women will go to the next highest scoring athletes, at the end of the weekend.

Natascha Badmann receives extension of Automatic Qualifying entitlement

August 19, 2011 (Tampa, Fla.) – Introduced in September 2010, the Kona Points Ranking (KPR) qualifying system has allowed professional athletes the opportunity to race and accumulate points at 85 qualifying events throughout the season.  KPR rankings have been updated weekly, giving athletes the ability to track their points and positions in the ranking.   Athletes who have earned their slots through the KPR qualifying system will race at the Ford Ironman World Championship.

The KPR qualifying system also allows for the granting of wildcard entries into the Ford Ironman World Championship to be awarded by the WTC. There will be no wildcards granted in 2011 to the Ford Ironman World Championship.

Six-time Ironman World Champion Natascha Badmann has been granted a one-year extension of her five-year Automatic Qualifying (AQ) entitlement.  The extension follows severe injuries sustained while racing at the 2007 Ford Ironman World Championship.  Badmann’s extension does not impact the KPR qualifying system and will not prevent any other athlete from claiming her spot at the starting line.

This past weekend were the final two events scoring for the first round of ‘July’ qualifiers for Kona at the Ironman UK and Ironman 70.3 Calgary.

The only ‘tense’ moments came from second place women’s finisher at Ironman UK, Diana Riesler who led the race for most of the day, and a win for her would have secured the 25^th qualifying slot in the KPR.  Her second place finish leaves Samantha Warriner , IM New Zealand Champion in that slot by just 55 points.

The top 25 qualified women  athletes in the KPR  (Mirinda Carfrae is an Automatic Qualifier) will be extended the invitation to accept their slot by August 7^th or allow it to roll to the next qualified athlete.

On the men’s side , there was little change and the top 40 qualified  men listed on the KPR (Craig Alexander is an Automatic Qualifier, and Andreas Raelert & Chris McCormack have not qualified their slots as of July 31^st) will be extended their invitation.  As of the deadline the 40^th qualifying slot goes to Matthew White, listed in #43 position.