AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND PROVIDE MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO QUALIFY FOR THE 2016 IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

IRONMAN today announced plans to distribute 65 age-group qualifying slots for the 2016 IRONMAN ^® World Championship between the 2016 IRONMAN Australia, Cairns Airport IRONMAN Asia-Pacific Championship Cairns and Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain IRONMAN New Zealand triathlons. The additional qualifying slots are being made available as a result of the cancellation of the IRONMAN Melbourne triathlon.

“We believe this will add considerable interest in these three existing IRONMAN events in Australia and New Zealand,” said IRONMAN Asia-Pacific CEO Geoff Meyer. “For so many, the opportunity to compete at the IRONMAN World Championship in Kailua-Kona is the Holy Grail in our sport, and the additional 65 qualifying slots spread among three well-respected IRONMAN events has now made that dream closer to coming true.”

An additional 15 age-group qualifying slots for the 2016 IRONMAN ^® World Championship will be allocated to the IRONMAN Australia triathlon to be held in Port Macquarie, NSW on 1 May, 2016, bringing the total qualifying slots for the event to 55.

The 2016 Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain IRONMAN New Zealand triathlon held in Taupo on 5 March will be allocated an additional 15 qualifying slots to the 2016 IRONMAN World Championship, which also brings their total to 55 slots.

As previously announced, the remaining 35 slots from IRONMAN Melbourne were added to the Cairns Airport IRONMAN Asia-Pacific Championship Cairns triathlon which will take place on 12 June and now offers a total of 105 qualifying slots (75 for general age-group and 30 allocated to athletes as part of official IRONMAN destination for Japanese athletes).

The winner of each age-group will earn a qualifying spot with the remainder of the slots decided on a pro-rata formula that is based on the number of entries in each age-group at the respective races.