Starts and preview:
https://www.tri247.com/...-preview-follow-live

Pretty thin fields on both mens and womens, but $25k more prize money than La Quinta. But that part of the world, not really surprised this time of year..I would watch it just for Ali, but alas, not covered...

Says 6 slots to worlds, 2 for men, and 2 for women, who gets the other two, non binary???

I think the fields are pretty decent, but that men’s swim is going to be QUICK!

Lazy copy and paste error by Tri247.
Date Event Prize Purse Slot Allocations
12/8/2023 IRONMAN 70.3 Bahrain, Middle East Championship $75,000 3MPRO/3WPRO


Start lists: https://files.constantcontact.com/...f4d-e57755162b86.pdf
Both SOFs are 82+ and PTO Gold tier (as a regional champs). MPRO SOF similar to Indian Wells (guess that was a "thin field" too). I assume all the short course athletes are attracted by the opportunity to grab a slot for Taupo and that's what makes the field's size and pointy end strength so high.
MPRO: Short course athletes will make it hard for Brownlee to win: Schoeman, van Riel, Studer, Stapley, Holm. But a win for Brownlee would see him into the PTO top #20.
Benito López has always finished #4 or better this year, including two 70.3 wins with best race at Ibiza (#2 to Mignon).
WPRO: Lee is a DNS. Buckingham is bound to lead out the swim, stay ahead on the bike and try on the run. Holm (Anne) is #79. Salthouse and Matthews are fairly even on the swim, I think; Watkinson slower and playing catch up all morning.

Is this going to be streamed? I remember watching it live a few times over the year. Granted it’s like 50% that prince dude, but we do see the pros too.

Bike is almost over, and 8 guys in a very tight lead group. Looks like Van Riel and Alistar are positioning towards the front, should be a pretty blistering run for awhile, until the pretenders drop off..

Kind of weird that a Friday morning race there will be over by 10;30 PM here in CA..

Here is the link in case anyone is still up and watching, bedtime for me. Catch it in the splits in the morning;

https://www.ironman.com/im703-bahrain-results

Brownlee is missing from the 60Km bike split.

ETA: van Riel is also missing from the last two splits.

Also, looking at the stories on Instagram, those three guys riding at the front inside the F1 track are a bit too close IMO.

https://www.instagram.com/im703middleeast/?hl=en

5 guys off the front to T2, all 1;56+ bike splits. No Ali or Martin, and lost one more from that group of top swimmers that were all riding together.

Looks like Stapley smoked T2 and went out hot!

Too hot it seems, Van Riel now takes the lead.

Kat Matthews gets off the bike 5min30 down, and is charging!!! Only 90's down now and still 10km to go!

Mark Matthews said on insta that it looked like Brownlee had a flat or some other mechanical while at the front of the bike

1. Van Riel
2. Schoeman
3. Stapley

1. Matthews
2. Watkinson
3. Pohle

Bergsten (in #5 WPRO) running a 1:17, 108 seconds(!) into Matthews!!
Edit to add: Was after a very good bike too.
She has averaged 1:26 pace for her 5 races this year and 1:25 in 2022.
That's a remarkable step up in pace.

Replying to no one in particular. I reckon that the likes of Sam and Lionel (as much as they are great for the sport) have about 12 months to fix their swims before these short course athletes come in and take over the world of PTO/70.3.

god dammit my heart bleeds for ali sometimes. who's got worse luck than that guy? just once i'd love to see him have a good clear crack at a big race while he's on his very best form. really don't want his long-course career to end as one big "what if?" situation.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

You are correct, they swim front pack, bike just as well and then runs sub 1:10.

Post olympics the PTO/70.3 is gonna get crowded! Already a lot of talented people have a slot for Taupo.

Either it’s bad luck, or it’s a pattern.

I don’t believe in “persistent bad luck”.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

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While the evidence for this just keeps piling up it still isn't a very popular theory around here. We will see in 12 months time in NZ.

yes and no. part of me thinks that it's been a fairly long time since lionel felt really relevant in a race. so OK finishes lately for sure, but never really dictating the dynamics. arguably the same for long, who had some good wins but against smaller fields. i've always thought that the short-courses bring a lot to longer distances - more skill, better transitions, strong swim, great footspeed, and usually a background of scientific squad training and federation support.

on the other hand, people have been saying this in tri since ~2000 ish. i remember people saying that simon whitfield was going to destroy the middle distance when he moved on after the olympics, and ... he retired an olympic-distance guy. a lot of the expected moves don't happen, and often when they do they're unremarkable.

so, wait and see, i guess?

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Worth ensuring you aren't confusing "can" with "want"

'Can' many of the short athletes excel in middle distance racing ...... maybe. Do all those 'want' to?.... who knows but unlikely. Not every 1500m runner wants to excel at 3000m.

Also the more some short course stars stake out investing a year of middle distance racing (my estimation of what it'd take to climb PTO rankings to become relevant beyond the odd wildcard entry chance) the more they put themselves at odds with success/revenue with Super League and NGB representation.

There's a lot of "grey" and context to the debate of "short course will crush middle distance". That said do I think in middle distance racing the swim with become even more vital to being relevant and successful over the next 12 months ... 1000%.

My intuition, physiologically speaking, is it is also easier to layer more resilience and speed endurance on top of raw speed vs. having focussed on the former (after a career in 'raw speed') and then trying to transition back to the latter or even flip flop between the two. Or to put it another way if we look at Jack Daniels vdot tables and make a basic reasonable assumption that aerobic talent is "evenly spread" in a unique individual then a 28:50 10k runner off bike should be running 1:03 half off bike..... nobody is doing that therefore my experience tells me the "pure speed middle distance" folks e.g. 1:08 ish guys would be irrelevant run wise in today's short course (KB has said he reckons might take sub 29min in Paris).

That's a big gamble to take if you are mid 20's racing short course and Super League and either going to Paris or confident you can go to LA in 2028 (unless you have deep pockets, trust fund or rich partner/spouse/parents!)

Regards

David

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David T-D
http://www.tilburydavis.com

Are we still waiting? Bergere, Wylde, Luis, Stornes, Van Riel, Schoeman, Stapley, Iden, Blu, Varga and list goes on and on... I would worry about Stapley since he will not be making the Olympic team. ST also forgets about the former ones that are (or were) established mid LC guys now: Frodo, Gomez, Brownlee. These guys all have an ITU racing background albeit not Olympic level: Bogen, Laidlow, Funk, Barnaby, Mignon. The skillset required to race SC can always transfer to a successful mid and LC career.

The sport is unifying and as fans, it is exciting. 70.3 racing is no longer the safe haven for weak swimmers.

At ST, it always seems as many folks' man crushes on the popular guys always clouds their judgement (e.g. totally missing there was something really wrong about Armstrong, Sanders realistic level, thinking Wurf was an exceptional pro cyclist despite having zero wins).

Kind of feels like high school a bit ;-)