IM China 70.3 races to offer 100 Kona slots

iwillhtfu

Good or bad thing?

http://eu.ironman.com/triathlon/news/articles/2016/07/china-races-to-offer-100-kona-slots.aspx

It certainly smacks of we own it we can do whatever we want with it.

I read they've also bought a SA MTB race and apparently already inflated the entry fee.

It doesn't look to good for IM events

peter kern

for many years you could qualify for kona via 70.3 races in the US ....
and kraichgau 70.3 ( germany) had in its first year a few slots too ,2015 i think that was before it was owed by wanda.

iwillhtfu wrote: »

Good or bad thing?

http://eu.ironman.com/triathlon/news/articles/2016/07/china-races-to-offer-100-kona-slots.aspx

It certainly smacks of we own it we can do whatever we want with it.

I read they've also bought a SA MTB race and apparently already inflated the entry fee.

It doesn't look to good for IM events

iwillhtfu

100 slots for 2 races though and both in China is that not excessive?

peter kern

for a long time many people qualify for kona that should not ( lottery legacy spots etc )
So i dodnt see a problem with 100 slots for a country where tri will take off and in 10 years time likely will be the 2nd biggest tri market in the world. (and you will likely see that more than half the slots will be taken by americans, australiens/kiwis and europeans)

mossym

rather see them given to races anywhere than sold on ebay or given to celebreties to do reailty style shows about their one and done experience.

while i can understand the opposition, they need to grow in china, and this is a way of enticing foreigners to travel over and bump up the numbers, otherwise it might be a struggle to coninvce locals to do it, once they see the race it will be easier to get them to race.

and also, having the slots open to anyone who is willing to travel is better than limiting it to the top Chinese in every age group, that would really be pushing it