Not sure specifically by category, but basically at the end of the awards they called everyone to the front who wanted a roll down slot and there was only 21 people I believe, so all 21 got a slot, as there were 30 available.

As far as I know, yes.

Well look at the brightside, you just saved close to $10K in race, travel and other costs to go to Austria :) And it won't be much different next year with the race in Australia :)

---

Rodney
TrainingPeaks | Altra Running | RAD Roller
http://www.goinglong.ca

This news really surprises me. I raced there in September 2014 thinking there might be some big rolldowns, and there were almost none in the big age groups. Maybe giving people almost a year to plan the trip to Austria prompted more to take their slots when compared to the 45-ish days they'd have to prepare after this year's race.

I was REALLY surprised by the difference between Silverman last fall, Tremblant 2 weeks ago and Muskoka.

At Silverman it was a nail biters....it was like waiting for Kona Qual slots. You pretty well had to be podium or near podium. I spent a decent chunk of cash to go to Silverman in the fall to try and get an early slot for Austria. It seems like a lot of people had exactly the same plan. I ended up in 6th and got the last rolldown.

At Tremblant 70.3 most age groups went to the top 10, but one rolled to 112th (I believe m40-44)

So 2 weeks later at Muskoka I went up with an athlete I coach. I told him to just do his best race in 35-39 and "hang around" and maybe he gets the same luck as the 112th guy in M40-44 in Tremblant. Best case he would likely be 50th.....30th, 50th, 75th, 100th....it is basically all the same. You just finish the race and hope everyone leaves.

Well, we were super surprised, when the slot allocation happened and the organizers looked at the room based on how many slots were left (I can't remember if you auto qualified if you could sign up in advance), and then they called up everyone who wanted a slot (I think with the intent to sort people in order in their age groups), but then there were less people than slots. This was in sharp contrast to end of rolldown in Tremblant where many people left empty handed or Silverman where only the small minority left with a slot.

At Muskoka rolldown there was one guy from Germany who came all the way to Muskoka to get a slot for Worlds that is only 2 hours from his home! It seems counter intuitive, but if you can drive to a local world's then it can make sense to fly to a qualifier and see a new place. Last year for Tremblant 70.3 WC, the slots were really hard fought at the regular Tremblant 70.3. I got the second last slot in my age group, but had I not, I was ready to fly somewhere to get one. I actually missed a slot earlier in the year by 1 postion at both St. Croix so thankfully was just fast enough to get one locally!

All this to say, it can be dog fight, or it can be "just show up". My athlete was going to leave after the race....he was tired and hungry and hot, but I forced him to stick around but I guess that is what I am there for...make him do stuff that he might not want to do because I know it will be good for him (maybe)

Dev

I heard about this yesterday. A few thoughts:

1. This is the second time 70.3 Muskoka has had slots for the 2015 WCs owing to the change of date this year.
2. The WCs are on the same weekend as the full Muskoka Ironman at the end of August.

If I weren't already signed up for the full, I'd have happily taken a slot for Austria.

#1 won't happen again assuming the dates of the Muskoka races stay about the same. #2 may or may not - Looks like WCs are in September 2016.

Cheers!

---

Munq

I would not have predicted the rolldowns to go that deep but nonetheless, there is a huge difference between qualifying at Muskoka for worlds in Mt Tremblant and qualifying at Muskoka for worlds in Austria. Assuming that a race attracts the majority of entrants from the surrounding region, then the logistics and cost for those folks to get to Austria with short notice are profoundly greater than to one relatively nearby.

This coming weekend (Muncie and Vineman) is the end of qualifying for Austria...anticipate deep rolldowns as well given the shortage of time to plan a big bucks trip. Qualifying for Australia starts 18 July 2015.