Yeah I know quite a few South Africans and they all have horror stories, most are from J'burg. I heard PE and Capetown were both nice places, but both in that top ten list.

Yes, it's all a question of geography.

In Taiwan, the Mont Tremblant spots barely rolled down.
The Australian slots went pretty easily.
Hardly anyone wanted to go to Chattanooga.
Almost no one wants to go to South Africa. The roll down wasn't quite to the point of "Who wants to go?" but it was pretty close.
I expect Nice will be quite different; France is pretty popular here.

Only Kona has the drawing power for a really international field as opposed to the more regional draw of the 70.3 WCs.

I would wager your friends are from J'burg...in most of the rest of the country, that is simply not true. I have friends all over the country (Durban, PE, Cape Town and J'burg) and the only ones that ever comment on crime or violence are those in the capital.

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That's what I've found. Never heard of any South Africans complaining of crime in Durban, PE or Capetown, only J.burg. But then looking online seems all of those cities are crime ridden. It could be a case of they're places where crime is high, but easily avoidable i.e little crime in the tourist areas.

Nonsense. I know a hand full of people who like travelling there for vacation. Many triathletes go there to train in EU/AM winter time. I work with some South Africans and they can tell a lot about the beauty of the country and lovely people. Can you get robbed? Sure. But that can also happen in NY, Berlin or Sydney...

I still have nightmares from watching Shark Week when they filmed in South Africa the great whites getting their full body lengths out of the water as they crunch something that looks like a swimmer in a wetsuit ;) I'd much rather take my chances swimming with the moccasins in the Tennessee river!

6 of the 10 most dangerous cities are in South Africa...does that make it the most dangerous country in Africa, right now?

With everything that is going on with the Dutch Afrikaans Boer I wouldn't want to be confused for one in an altercation.

There are 51 murder deaths per day in all of South Africa out of a population of 55 millions people.

Hang on.....the odds of me getting killed in South Africa are less than one in a million if my odds are the same as the average South African, and my odds are lower, because I am not part of any crime syndicate.

But let's for a second assume that I get the same odds and jack them up and round it out to one in a million

In the US there around 40,000 deaths form driving accidents annually.

Let's round it off and call it 100 driving deaths per day (its actually touch more)
and round up the populatiion to 400 million to make the math easy....so the odds are 1 in 4 million of dying IN YOUR CAR IN THE US vs 1 in 1 million of being killed by murder in South Africa.

Sooooooo...EVERYBODY, QUICK, STOP DRIVING....YOU'RE GONNA DIE!!! THE US HAS INSANELY DEADLY ROADS.

...and so the stats go for people who can't do math properly

I think this thread is getting a little too polarized with the crime/murder/etc. rate "thing"... it's one of n +1 reasons people aren't lining up to race the 70.3 WC in SA. If someone states that it's the crime... that's their reality and reason.

Sure it is a perfectly rational thing to be scared about irrational things. Just pointing out the math for the next time everyone get's into their one in 4 million car death trap.

Generally the odds of most things resulting in bad outcomes is really really low, but we tend to assign an irrational weighting to things that result in death or near death if something bad happens even though the odds of death or harm in the same crazy low range.



















OK, those of you who bought tickets, this is where you will be going. The rest of us will get in our cars in our driveways in North America and probably die of roughly same odds in a car crash of any of you dying from murder in South Africa.

Have fun.

My opinion from Spain (Europe):
I dream to go to Kona, but not to South Africa.
I would go to Nice or other European City... I would love to go to US or Australia/New Zealand... but I would not go to any other country for a Triathlon, even Russia.

Knowing that the event will rotate... If I have had the slot for South Africa, I would said to me: better to wait for other year.


(If I took a slot for Kona, it is more like "I have to take the slot, I don't know if I would have this opportunity a second time")

The same thing happened last year at Tremblant 70.3 and the WC was in Chattanooga. Most AG could not allocate slots. I think there is a fairly general disinterest in 70.3 WC altogether.

So your guage for interest in the 70.3 WC is based on what happens late in the qualifying cycle when most folks have little flexibility, time or money to insert a trip in short order?! Meanwhile, thousands of athletes will race the 70.3 WC and demonstrate tremendous interest ... wherever they place it.

My opinion from Florida (U.S.):
I also dream of going to Kona, but apart from the hoopla, I doubt the race itself will be as nice as IM South Africa which I've done.
I would not go to Nice, but there are many European cities that would make a great 70.3 location. Zell am See was fantastic.
I have my fingers crossed that Taupo, New Zealand gets the 2020 selection.
Nix on Russia and most of Asia.
I do have a slot for South Africa and due to my experience at IMSA, I'm going back.

Do you have insight on the course, particularly swim? I see the bike and run course online, and I know wind is going to be a big factor. I don't know anything about the swim, e.g., water temps, currents, great white sharks looking for a snack, etc.

I know there are a lot of naysayers about this event, but I'm really looking forward to the trip and the race.

No one is interested in 70.3 World Cup. Doesn’t matter where you stick it. South Africa, NZ, Australia are so far away and too costly to go to for half a race, only the locals will go. Europe or North America only get racers because of population density. My 2 cents.

I understand what you mean, and agree to a certain extent, but that wasn't the main vibe. Talking to top finishers, either they had no interest in it or actually had never heard that there was such a thing as the 70.3 WC. It's always been like that in Tremblant (except maybe the year it was held in Tremblant, 2014 - I wasn't at the rolldown that year). Not too mention that until this year, most top finishers in Tremblant that wanted to go to WC had already secured their spots in another race (Timberman, most of the time).

Mind you, the disinterest of some meant that I got a slot in Chattanooga, and would have as well for South Africa provided I wanted to go.

Glad you're looking forward to the trip to PE. I'm a local here so can answer some of your questions.

Swim looks like it starts at Kings Beach instead of the usual IMSA Hobie start so some waves in and out. Not much in the way of currents to affect you. Sea temps here vary from around 14 degrees centigrade at the moment to maybe 20 in summer time.

Sharks, not that you'll see. If anything, we have Ragged tooths and small hammerheads, but I've been swimming in the bay for 12 years and never seen either. Great Whites very very very rarely. Dolphins though, every single day and further out whales in the bay at the moment.

There is no question whatsoever that the 70.3 WC does not have near the glamour nor the competitiveness of Kona. Nonetheless, it is still a highly competitive, well-attended 70.3 event. That a lot of North American athletes aren't interested or can't afford the trip doesn't change the fact that the rotation has been an enormous success and results in much higher participation for the region in which it is situated. Yet, every year that the WC is not in North America, you can find the same damn thread that the location X is a failure, that rolldowns are deep, no one wants to go, yadda, yadda, yadda, whine, whine, whine. I roll my eyes every year.

Regardless of the location of the WC, slots tend not to roll very deep early in the qualifying cycle, and then go deeper as more of the top athletes have already secured them, and then can go very deep late in the cycle when the planning window is almost closed. And when making these observations, people either forget or ignore the fact that the now two-day 70.3 WC has a field more than twice as large as Kona. If the field were the same size as Kona, you would not see rolldowns anywhere near as deep.

I expect that Nice will be more popular than Port Elizabeth, but the general pattern will persist. Those that really want to go should target a 70.3 in late Jun/early Jul 70.3 2019. Meanwhile, after Perth or Taupo is named for 2020, expect the whining from North America to pick right back up, especially from the east coast of the U.S. But Aussies, Kiwis and Asians are going to fight tooth and nail to go. I'm voting for Taupo!

I personally find the rotation exciting as I would long be done with the series if it were still in Vegas or Clearwater. It's like the TV channel - don't watch if you don't like it. And if you don't want to go a given location, then don't. Just wait until something comes up that you are excited to try and qualify for. WTC has this one right and I would not expect to see any change to the rotation as recommended in this thread.

my mom was in south Africa recently and loved it. I know people who lived there and speak very highly of it. that said, there's always exceptions. I worked for a south African and he would talk about how they had to have "bars on their windows because of the darks in the shanty towns" needless to say he was a walking HR case. id take the opportunity to make a vacation out of it. but that said, I'm never qualifying for anything, I'm a BOP'er

Well I am back from worlds. So how was it? At the awards banquet they said the race brought 4500 athletes and an estimated 16,000 visitors. The U.S. had the highest representation of any country with 769 athletes. The papers said that across all the main hotels in Summerstrand only 3 smoking rooms were not booked. Police presence was everywhere on the beach path with city ambassadors on bikes up and down the beach. There were scheduled bike rides and daily swim practices. Like the last time I came, I felt completely safe. I read of one home invasion where a South African athlete and his wife were robbed at knifepoint while at a secluded guest cottage 20 miles out of town...they took his garmin, cellphone and the TV. I also read of an athlete who lost his debit card in a sketchy ATM. That's it. But if you were in Summerstrand you might as well have been at Virginia Beach, except the latter doesnt have all the wildlife and natural beauty. And if you were on the 70.3 WC facebook page you read dozens upon dozens of thanks to Paul Kaye and all the volunteers for an outstanding and successful event. It's a shame if anyone passed it up. BTW, I did not get any shots, did not take malaria pills and I drank the water. WTC scored big on this one!