Haha not really :) I think you do better.

I really enjoyed the ITU during 2010 - 2017.

The Brownlee brothers + Gomez turned it into a smash fest and the courses were (mostly) interesting. There was even a hill climb event one year.

The women's racing was also really good: Stanford, Holland, Spirig, Jorgensen, Duffy (and many more tbh)

AB's performance in London 2012 remains the best I've ever seen at any distance. The women's race was a five-way sprint.

Lately it's lost it's charm for me, for reasons I can't quite work out.

The same goes for IM in an odd way. 2006 - 2014 seemed like a golden era. Wellington, Stadler, Alexander, Carfree, Ryf, Macca, Faris, Sindballe etc.

It's become a lot more 'plastic' since.

Anyway, back on topic, I really wish AB would have just one good year at full distance. He smashed the IMWA just after the blow up in Hawaii, so my guess is he can do well.

I would love to know what really goes on behind the scenes. Maybe one day he'll write a book with the details.

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/.../?page=unread#unread

Will we see Ali in Kona? He should get a wildcard invite along with Gomez. They are names I want to see on the start line.

We will see neither at Kona, and rightly so.
These guys have to start and finish some decent races, including a full distance, before throwing themselves at Kona. They need to demonstrate readiness to race, if only to themselves.
Brownlee has managed Oceanside (3:45). Gomez raced Pucon (3:50).

would love to see both of them there, and i also wish kona made more liberal use of wildcards. for instance, i think olympic champs should always have a standing invite. in a field of 2000+ athletes, adding another few men and women pros with the potential to make the race interesting wouldn't meaningfully add to crowding, nor would it dilute the sanctity of the kona qualification process.

of course, the taller order is getting ali and javi to the start line fit and healthy. still, we can dream . . .

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

I'm a huge fan and even I've lost track of what injury he's now got?

He pulled out of Sub7 with a hip issue.

I think Ali is too fragile to ever be able to race consistently again. Gomez is more durable and I would like to see what he can do, at least one more time, at Kona. I think Ali's future lies in commentary. He is awesome as a commentator for Super League and he would be awesome for Ironman and who knows what else. He should focus on that and hang up the running shoes.

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http://dontletitdefeatyou.blogspot.com

Too bad I've never witnessed his awesomeness. I can still watch his incredible ITU races on YouTube, but it looks like I will never see him winning some serious Ironman races with stacked field on Facebook Live. I'm a big fan of Vincent Luis and I have a doubt about him too. He hasn't been doing well lately either. No injury though.

They sould give an invite to Łukasz Wójt, I want to see him swim in Kona and break that record.

All teenage sport sensations seem to end up injured and burnt out earlier in their careers more.

Racing the PTO Canadian open races apparently.

I don’t think a double Olympic champion with a career spanning close to 20 years can be classed as burnt out early.

If he is in reasonable shape and not likely to cause further injury problems then it’s a good move. Even a semi fit Ali will top 10….and the prize fund is exceptional?

It's been a very long time since I've seen Ali run fit, maybe even Rio Olympics, maybe someone can correct me if they've seen him run at his absolute best since then?

Geez, no kidding. The only repeat Olympic Champion, - men or women - and he went to 3 Olympic games. What a horrible take.

• 1. $100,000
• 2. $70,000
• 3. $50,000
• 4. $40,000
• 5. $35,000
• 6. $30,000
• 7. $25,000
• 8. $20,000
• 9. $18,000
• 10. $16,000
• 11. $14,000
• 12. $13,000
• 13. $12,000
• 14, $11,000
• 15, $10,000
• 16. $9,000
• 17. $8,000
• 18. $7,000
• 19. $6,000
• 20. $5,000
• 21-40. $2,000 each

He ran 1:07:40 at 70.3 Worlds in SA in 2018. I'd say that's a pretty solid run. I can only think of a few pros that have ran sub 1:08.

2018 70.3 worlds, he went sub 1h10min to take silver in perhaps the most amazing 70.3 race I have seen. That was almost 4 years ago, but still counts as reasonably recent.

edit - sorry TulkasTri, saw your post too late.

I don't think Ali was fully run fit for that 70.3 Worlds.

That race did some actual damage to a few guys IMO. It was awesome though seeing those runs being laid down.

It was so beautiful seeing Jan, Ali, and Javi racing eachother. Jan returned injured from that race, but he ran a 1:06:34.

How many 1:06s have we seen?

I don't think Ali, Gomez or Frodo had another decent race that year from memory, all three went deep!

Unfortunately, given this was a stress reaction in his hip, I would guess that his run training would be the first thing to take a pause.

Beautiful indeed, for once Jan was pushed by aggressive and strong competitors; hopefully we get to see something similar in Kona this year.

And as far as i remember there has only been Blummenfelt at Bahrain 2018 also with a 1:06, Iden clocked a 1:07 on the same day. But to be fair the course in South Africa was harder so all the more credit to Frodeno.