Thanks for the interview
Impressive coming from a soccer background

Notes his psi tubeless was 90psi

Any idea on his weight?

I thought this was going to be about Kevin's brother

Hey let's keep in mind that the fastest person in 35-39 was Sebi Kienle in 7:55 who just did his all time best at Kona in 6th overall.

The age groups under 45 don't have the best in the world in their age group, because the best are racing pro. Tim O'Donnell was fastest 40-44 in the world in 8:02 2 years after a heart attack!!!

But...they're not racing in age groups...because they're pros...?!

That's meant to be in pink right? Is that really how you look at it???

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Blog: https://davidkoppeltriathlon.blogspot.com/
Coaching: https://dkendurance.com/

You can’t have it both ways

Are you suggesting there should be no such age group? Can’t we just laud his effort?

All these complaints

- should be racing as a pro
- is not as fast as the pros
- has no real job
- Bob would have beaten him
- he is faster than me thus something stinks

Waiting to get his response

Surely pink?

I’m new here and realize there have been several threads where Jenson Button has come up, but I’d love to see this kind of interview with him.

Keep up the great work!

This guy has done a great job and performance is awesome. When I clicked really thought maybe Kev has a brother and this guy was a proper soccer pro who had come over.

He's a really good AG and the soccer angle is not significant. It would be interesting if a retired top flight player did come over, say a box to box like Gerrard, assuming they were not clapped out with injuries and actually wanted to rather than enjoy being rich and retired.

https://www.tri247.com/triathlon-features/interviews/gbkona-2018-rich-whitfield-profile


This guy played for Preston who are in the EFL so very high levels of fitness needed, sub 9 a few times

Yeah roughly anyone under 40 not going close or sub 8 is not that impressive. Winning age groups under 40 is not that impressive, because the top people in those age groups are racing pro and often have much more demanding lifestyle balancing than many age groupers anyway. I would say that age groups under 45 at Kona are not neccessary. Maybe all we need is pro field where you have WADA and whereabouts and other than that. an open group not subject to all of that and start the age groups at 45.

Age groups at local level racing is fine, because there are no pro fields anyway (Jan F can come and race 40-44 at our local tri, I am sure everyone would be happy to get smacked by him).

Basically a slower pro and an an age group winner under 40 are roughly the same thing. But the slow pro gets almost no glory.

Are you saying that everyone under 45 should start with the pros even if they are not at their level (fun) or Ironman should be a sport only for pros and amateurs over 45 (not a lot of fun for anyone who doesn't qualify)?

I hate to break it to you but under 45s make 50% of the participants in Kona with 40-44 usually being the most numerous AG and 35-39 usually in the top 3.

Many sports have "masters" or age group categories starting way earlier than 45. Running marathons at 40 but many other sports start at least at 30 or 35. Swimming start at 25.



But the amateur isn't paid to race and doesn't win prize money. Besides, what glory is there for AGs, really?

hahaha dude what are you smoking

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

By that logic I’d argue that winning any age group isn’t impressive. Even after 40, the best have “retired” so you are winning a meaningless competition of “whoever is left competing”. You can’t seriously have this view on AG competition…?

Have to break it to you, a slower pro isn't paid to race nor do they win any prize money. Who knows how those outside the top PTO 50 make a living. Though they have had to KQ so that meant a pay day at whichever IM they raced so to do.
The top amateurs get considerable kudos amongst their peers and a umeke. And if in the first start beating some of the pros. Glory? You decide.
Well done De Bruyn.

Just to be clear, pros category (subject to all the WADA code), amateur under 45 category, then 5 year age groups.

The difference between the under 45 category and the 5 year age groups, is the best in the world in the under 45 are racing pro. In over 45, the best athletes in those age brackets are in the 5 year age groups.

Just saying the hype around sub 45 (or sub 40 ) year old age groups is a bit unwarranted, because there are many who can win those age groups, who step up and race pro.

As one pro told me on a flight back from IM South Africa, when we were talking about some age grouper bike times being close to pros, "Those guys can't swim and their runs are 10-15 min slow and they sling shot past all their 2000 friends after their 60-65 min swims. If they could swim and run they would race pro"

He is 5’9” and weighs 152 pounds

There's always that guy who just completely derails a thread.

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Blog: https://davidkoppeltriathlon.blogspot.com/
Coaching: https://dkendurance.com/

That's my main point. The guys winning some of these age groups get a fair amount of exposure when they are relatively slow compared to the top people their age. The guys who step up and race pro and are cannon fodder for Sebi and Jan get zero coverage, but they pretty well race in anonymity with not peer elevation in terms of pats on backs and kudos. Those MOP and BOP pros I find to be much more impressive.

So you feel this way about cycling, running, tennis, golf any other amateur sport, too?

Everyone sucks because they aren't pros?

It's not that they suck. It's that they get more hype and attention than they deserve when you look at it logically.

Are there headline articles on the most popular running/cycling/tennis/golf/basketball/etc. websites hyping up people in their mid-30s that win amateur competitions but are no better than no-name professionals? Maybe in local newspapers where they live or if there is some extra-special human interest story to go along with it. But otherwise no. We're not reading on the front page of Golf.com about Bob who used to play football in high school and is now a pretty damn good golfer, about as good as Brett Drewitt (randomly picked some guy near the bottom of the PGA tour rankings), and how awesome he is. Triathlon culture is weird.

More impressive because of their athletic abilities...and less impressive because of their decision-making abilities?

Seriously man, you lost everyone when you basically said that top AGers have less stressful lives than pros.

Since so many are vocal about disagreeing, I'll just chime in and say I get your point. Top 30-35AG gets articles and kudos for choosing the easier competition. It's also true you don't read about the best "amateurs" in other sports. Can't tell you who was 20th in Kona but he probably would be on the front page of ST if he chose to be top amateur instead.

Maybe triathlon likes "top AG" stories because we feel like they're one of us? And as soon as they get a pro card they're unrelatable? Even though BOP pros are faster and still need to work full time.

The headline implied this was a top level soccer player making a transition. It's a guy who played soccer at uni until he was 27. He's a really good AG, its not really a story about a top level soccer player coming over and excelling at tri.

Dev's point about top AG v BOP pros makes some sense top AG are not much different to BOP pros, some even have more resources and time to train.