Women start list looks a bit underwhelming, but the men is rock solid: Lange, Iden, Wurf, Youri, Weiss x2.

Interesting fact: F28 Bianca Bogen. Yes, this Bogen.

Oh wow. Do you know if they have the same coach?

stratman margier schaufler pereira and nieschlag if healthy are all serious athletes its a pretty good field .

There's a basic page about them: https://www.die-bogens.de/. It's in German, but maybe you can go with a built-in translator. In one of the podcasts Rico was mentioning his sister, that she had a break due to pregnancy. Joseph Spindler is the coach for both. It's a simplification, although Joseph is from the Brett Sutton's school of training: volume, specificity & mental strength.

Michael Raelert? Awesome for old times sake.

On who's already got a Taupo start:
Pallant-Browne Philipp Priarone Kleiser Rayner Curridori Reng Iemmolo Meißner
Stratmann Weiss Barnaby Emde (plus Iden (completion = validation))

The WPro slots will roll down a way. I note that Meißner is there again so, after missing out on Paris, she''s going all in, at least this season, on middle distance - worth consideration for a T100 London wild card start perhaps, unless DeuTri require her to be on standby for/in Paris in case of injury. She is still young so assume will be in the mix for LA28.
Philipp for her second 70.3 to validate her Nice AQ

Happy to see Gustav back racing!

i think Andreas Dreitz is also already qualified from his Zell am See race in 2023

Yes, he's on the start list as "Andi Dreitz" so my vlookup didn't pick 'Andi' up.

yeah, for me it's not necessarily an "amazing" field but it is a very interesting one. lots of cool dynamics are possible here.

there are also a lot of question marks for me: astle has been injured, gustav has been ... off in the wilderness, lange raced hard last weekend and wurf the weekend before, and so on. how many will DNS or DNF? how will people continue to manage the weird year of 2024?

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

you've corrected me several times lately so it felt good ;-)


on a sensitive subject here, I think it will be quite harder for the IM Pro Series contenders to qualify in Europe than in N. America.
Here, Margirier and Keulen are clear favorites for the race and according to trirating https://www.trirating.com/...2024-may-11-seedings
Hogenhaug could pick the third remaining slot. Lange is predicted as 10 minutes behind which would mean around 1900 points improving his lead.

Thomas Hernandez is one of the very few contenders who is already qualified. M. Weiss, Currie are 2 yet they have yet to score a full IM. Brazilan Andre Lopes is also qualified for Taupo, but not for Kona.

The point is you are way more likely to get points if the 'strength of field' is lower. In N. Am, only Long and Sanders seem to be able to put a big gap whereas in Europe many athletes (some 'unknown' young guys coming from short course racing like Jannik Schauffler in Valencia) can win and score good results. Hanson and Lieferman are thus more likely to TQ (Taupo Qualify) than Lange or Skipper.