Ironman World Championships in Kona shaping up as the Australian Championships

The start list for Kona is starting to firm up as the first qualifying period passed on the 29th July. The top 50 males and top 30 females  in the rankings get the chance to register for Kona, plus a couple of automatic qualifiers. As of the 29th the top 40 males and top 25 females will be receiving their invites, with the remaining positions to be decided.

The men’s list will roll down at least two places with Craig Alexander and Greg Bennett automatic qualifiers, and the women’s will roll down at least  4 places with Chrissie Wellington,  Melissa Hauschildt (Rollison)  and Olympic Silver medalist Lisa Norden known non starters, and Miranda Carfrae an automatic qualifier along with Rebekah Keat who should also qualify.

Australia will have a great opportunity to extend its run of Kona champions with an impressive list of qualifiers. In the men’s : Craig Alexander; Pete Jacobs; Chris McCormack; David Dellow; Joe Gambles, Paul Matthews; Luke Mckenzie; Josh Rix and Luke Bell have already qualified, and Jason Shortis, Aaron Farlow, Tim Reed, Leon Griffin and Clayton Fettell are all well placed if they want to go. Potentially 14 (15 if you include Bennett) Aussies racing would make it feel like an Australian championship!

In the women’s there is less Australian depth, though a lot of quality. In addition to  Miranda we can hope to see Carrie Lester, and  Belinda Granger and Nikki Butterfield are still a chance of qualifying.