Ironman Adjusts the 2014 World Championship Ranking System
Athlete feedback leads to changes.
Responding to feedback from professional athletes and event organizers, the World Triathlon Corporation announced today that the points ranking systems for its world championship events will be adjusted for the 2014 qualifying year.
The goal of the new system is to continue to reward and qualify the 50 most competitive professional men and 35 professional women for the IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships.
The key adjustment is an increase in the number of points available for the IRONMAN World Championship – it will now be a P-8000 level event, bringing the Kona Points Ranking (KPR) into alignment with the 70.3 Points Ranking (70.3PR). Additionally, there will only be three levels of scoring for full-distance events (P-8000/ P-4000/ P-2000), with the removal of the P-1000 scoring level. The scoring levels for Ironman 70.3 (70.3PR) remain the same.
“We made these modifications based on feedback from our athletes,” says IRONMAN CEO Andrew Messick. “They wanted a system that rewarded athletes who finished in the top ten in World Championships (which has always been considered the benchmark of excellence in the sport), top five finishers from regional championship events and top three finishers at all other races.”
The new points distribution/formula remains true to the goal of rewarding athletes who perform well and accomplish a top ten finish at World Championship events. The dropoff of points at races is now steeper, rewarding athletes who perform in the top five at championship-level races and those who win other races.
The adjusted points will be introduced starting with 2014 qualifying at IRONMAN 70.3 Timberman in August for the 70.3PR and IRONMAN Wisconsin for KPR in September.
View the full story and new adjusted points chart at ironman.com.
