Hi,
I am fairly new the sport of triathlon. I am pretty amazed by the focus on Kona but I also understand it. It seems like qualifying times are around 9:30-10 hours for a 140.6 - and it probably could become 9:15-9:30 over the next couple of years as there are more and more athletes that want to qualify and slots per qualifying race gets fewer and fewer as WTC is adding more races to the calendar. Anyway, this is pure guesswork. My first question is the folllowing: What are the characteristics of athletes qualifying for Kona?
I would assume there are 4 groups
1. People that has fairly good but not off the chart genetics and without a competitive background in either of the 3 disciplines. But they put in consistent +15 hour high quality training weeks in, maybe for several years. Lead time to KQ is +4 years of consistent training and racing
2. People who has off-the-chart genetics but without a competitive background in S, B or R. They need a few races to learn how to race and also train to build a IM base. Lead time to qualificaiton around 1.5-2 years from starting to train for IMs
3. People with a competitive background in one of the 3 disciplines. Need to build base but they are pretty fast already, they have race experience and in decent shape so they can qualify in first attempt. Lead time to qualification ~1 year
4. People who wins the lottery or buy a slot (will discard this group in the following)
I would assume most people at Kona is in group 2 and 3 as a lot of people like do not have the will to dedicate several years to IM training.
2nd question is: Any view on how many people that belong to group 1 and does not qualify despite putting in 3-4 years of consitent training? In other words, what is the success rate of people doing a whole-hearted attempt to KQ without having either off the chart genetics or a competitive back-ground?
I am fairly new the sport of triathlon. I am pretty amazed by the focus on Kona but I also understand it. It seems like qualifying times are around 9:30-10 hours for a 140.6 - and it probably could become 9:15-9:30 over the next couple of years as there are more and more athletes that want to qualify and slots per qualifying race gets fewer and fewer as WTC is adding more races to the calendar. Anyway, this is pure guesswork. My first question is the folllowing: What are the characteristics of athletes qualifying for Kona?
I would assume there are 4 groups
1. People that has fairly good but not off the chart genetics and without a competitive background in either of the 3 disciplines. But they put in consistent +15 hour high quality training weeks in, maybe for several years. Lead time to KQ is +4 years of consistent training and racing
2. People who has off-the-chart genetics but without a competitive background in S, B or R. They need a few races to learn how to race and also train to build a IM base. Lead time to qualificaiton around 1.5-2 years from starting to train for IMs
3. People with a competitive background in one of the 3 disciplines. Need to build base but they are pretty fast already, they have race experience and in decent shape so they can qualify in first attempt. Lead time to qualification ~1 year
4. People who wins the lottery or buy a slot (will discard this group in the following)
I would assume most people at Kona is in group 2 and 3 as a lot of people like do not have the will to dedicate several years to IM training.
2nd question is: Any view on how many people that belong to group 1 and does not qualify despite putting in 3-4 years of consitent training? In other words, what is the success rate of people doing a whole-hearted attempt to KQ without having either off the chart genetics or a competitive back-ground?