Page 14 of the Athlete Guide says nope.

“Athletes within the Kukui Division will not be eligible for awards“

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I miss you "Sports Night"

i don't really like this.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Interesting! FWIW, the tracker shows Taylor finished 5th of 50 in M65-69.
My other question is how does someone who has raced, and won at the IMWC get in on a Legacy slot, or maybe he got a Wild Card?

Kukui included legacy, other lotteries (ex: Hawaii resident lottery), people who missed their AG start corral, and probably a few other things. Basically a catch-all.

How written and how applied may be different.

If just look at the event on the day then does feel kind of sucky. But I also appreciate the process and recognition of the World Championships so can see why they would be ineligible. Winning that title should be head to head (you cross the line first) and the philosophy is qualification earns you the opportunity to ‘compete’ for the title, not just the entry. Also, referees, etc. can focus on the race. Any time you have a blended competition with subjectivity you have to look at the process of getting there. First year they did swim waves and I think the intentionality was to let the qualifiers have the best chance to race fairly and earn the win. Again, not there and so only reading the guide but it is a reasonable decision to make.

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I miss you "Sports Night"

The live announcers said it was a legacy wave. I think the legacy people racing thought it was too. This guy has quite a history in winning races so should have been age group. How did he get in??

https://m.ironman.com/.../gregory-taylor.aspx

He won his age group at IM 70.3 Hawaii, which had qualifying slots this year. But I guess Ironman didn’t treat those qualifying slots like other qualifying slots.

Yes they did. Guy on my team qualified the same way and was in the first wave with me.

Guessing this guy didn’t make it to the corral in time and ended up in the last wave.

Yes, it also explicitly stated that in the guide - if you missed your wave you were put in Kukui wave.

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I miss you "Sports Night"

Yep, that explains why one of the biggest long time IM winners would be in the Kukui wave. I was surprised to see him there! Wouldn’t be surprised if it was a strategy!

So, he gets no credit in m65-69? At least that is how Tracker has it as of now.
Fair enough by me if you missed your start, but a shame for a talent.

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Team Zoot So Cal

Greg Taylor is a major stud, he won the Olympic USAT 65-69 AG by 10 minutes over second place and then won the Sprint the next day. Since I'm the same age I'm glad he doesn't do Aquabike.

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"They know f_ck-all over at Slowtwitch"
- Lionel Sanders

Does anyone know whether the Kukui group had a separate award? I see my result isn't listed in my age group on the app. I'm only under "Overall Kukui Men" and "Kukui [AG]". I booked a flight for Sunday morning so I couldn't make it to the ceremony, only to realize I was top-3 overall in the Kukui wave. On the website results I'm listed under my age group.

PS: I don't think Kukui deserves separate awards, I'm just curious since I didn't make it on Sunday.