They can still have a race with local athletes only, and foreigners can enter Dubai with the Covid19 tests before and upon arrival, so it is doable.

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I am of the view now that a lot of these events need to go ahead even if they have very small,locals only fields.The sponsorship of events in some of the countries like Dubai,India,Indonesia,Vietnam,etc,etc is a little different than in western countries and I think in the long run it is good for the sport and the "industry" to have some events raced.The Bangsaen 70.3 in Thailand was cancelled but probably could have gone ahead as the Thai Navy has been running their race series without issues and they have Iron distance events as part of their races.

Ironman Cairns last September was essentially a locals race with only 215 Ironman finishers and 282, 70.3 finishers.Thank's to the extra financial support from the state government it was deemed a success and entries are rolling in again for this year.
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There’s no government or industry sponsor that’s really going to step in and subsidize Ironman events in North America. It’s awesome that’s happening elsewhere but that’s not a reality on our side of the pond. The ability to make a profit is going to factor into the decision making. They may want to run races if they can this year with however many people show up just to keep the machine going. The bean counters at WTC likely know this means losing money this year but silver lining is it frees up the corner they boxed themselves into with all these deferrals. They need to sweep the deferrals off their books because it’s a huge cash flow issue and no better way to sweep deferrals than having a race.

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it really depends where you live. i am in Switzerland and AT THE MOMENT, there is no problem to go there. PCR test to go and to come back. no quarantine coming back from UAE.
I will register on Feb 2nd but of course every week here, everything is evolving

Even if I wanted to go from Canada (I have not travelled since I went to Dubai for the 70.3 last year that was timed with some work in UAE and India), I literally cant go anywhere for work (forget about personal) because rightfully we have the quarantine at the govt mandated hotel for 3 days upon arrival and if you fail your Covid19 test, you're stuck there for 14 days.

But that scenario in one country does not make it impossible to hold these races with locals only depending on where they are. I hope the Canadian Mdot races happens with locals only this summer. I just can't see our border situation changing until the fall. I actually wish they did this 10 months ago. Now it is a bit too little too late. Back to Dubai, Expo 2021 is on deck for this fall. Emirates is implementing the IATA Travel App that will allow travellers to log their Covid19 tests or vaccine info. So a bit of travel for a local IM event, you figure they need a bunch of small events from now till Expo 2021 to start sortiing things out if they actually want to have the Expo.

I have been reading the whole year about US ironman races here in this forum and nobody cared of the fact that nobody could enter in US. i was in Ironman Florida, the race went on but borders were closed. did Ironman care?

now Dubai race is on, registrations will open on Tuesday and many countries can travel to UAE, not Canada apparently

so, where is the problem now?

+1

Just to be clear, it is not Ironman's problem who can travel to what country. They need to keep running their business. Canadians can travel to Dubai. UAE is not barring Canadians. Canada is barring all nationals who enter Canada to quarantine at a hotel for $2000 for three days and if you fail covid19 test, you are stuck there 14 days at your cost. This is not UAE's problem and it is not Ironman's problem. Ironman should run races wherever they are allowed to and feel comfortable running them. Likewise anyone coming to Canada for Ironman races in Canada may be stuck with this rule this summer. it basically makes it impractical for any international visitors and business people to come to Canada until this is lifted. Similar rule to Australia. Its fine, it is the way the world is and if an Ironman race happens in an country like that, (ex: Taiwan, much more stringent than Canada), then good for Ironman, there just wont be a lot of international racers.

I am supportive of Dubai running the 70.3 Things are roughly business as usual there and most of the nation will be vaccinated by March 12th race day too. You should have no problem going there, its just going be if you have any challenges when you return to your home country.

Things are not quite business as usual here. Case numbers are exploding (word on the street is that the reported daily numbers of ~3600 are really closer to 10,000), hospitals are full and turning away non-critical surgeries, and local events are being pushed back to April or canceled. There’s even word of a possible 2-week lockdown circulating among the Emiratis. Many of us are skipping the 70.3 registration because we’re already out race fees from canceled IM events in the region last year and are not willing to front them more cash.

Hey thanks for that perspective. I was talking with one of my staff in Dubai and she was saying people are carrying on with things like it is business as usual (as much as it gets post pandemic). From what I was told the big spike of numbers reflect all the foreign tourist test numbers and that overall hotel revenues exceeded this time last year (but that may be fake news too just like the 3K vs 10K numbers). This was an older economist article but their comments on hotels being 70% full, bars and restaurants open etc etc is what I was commenting on:

https://www.economist.com/...chinese-made-vaccine

In any case seems like anyone who lives there who wants Sinopharm will get it it.

She's right about the tourists. Late December and into January was full of them escaping the UK and its lockdowns, and both the UK and South Africa variants of covid showed up shortly thereafter. Most of them are gone now that the UK has stopped all flights to/from the UAE, with the Russians taking their place. When you have hundreds of Instagram "influencers" posting pics from the bars and clubs and beaches saying how open Dubai is, it's tough the get the non-residents to follow the rules and guidelines. The vaccination program should help soo, though, They've inoculated almost 25% of the population with either the Sinopharm or the Pfizer vaccine (I get my second shot on Wednesday), and at the current rate of over 100k per day, they'll hit the magic 70% mark in early March.

It's fair enough to say that IM have no responsibility over whether there are travel restrictions or not.
But most races this year will be deferrals from last year, and if I can't travel to the country then I lose the money. There should be a different option available such as a transfer to a different race or a refund.

Ironman Europe have been terrible with this. When I couldn't make the new Ironman Hamburg date, they just said tough.

Looking on social media (IRONMAN's Instagram, specifically), this is indeed happening tomorrow (or today, I guess, if you're there already).

Anyone going or know anyone who is? I'm still on the fence about in-person racing, but I guess it has to start some time...?

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"Have courage, and be kind."

Anyone know if there is a livestream or video? There has been in previous versions of this race.

https://www.dubaisports.ae/content/dubaisports/livestreaming/channel-1.html


The only one I found (with Arabic sound comments)

Damn, the Swiss guy went from 2nd to 4th with a loss of 1 second, must be heartbreaki g

Even tougher for Rasmus Svenningsson who is writing in the forum who would have won the race with a normal T2 (lost 1.40). Posted a 1.09 run, maybe a bit short course (?) but regardless a monster performance.

Will be interesting to hear what happened in T2

What happened with Skipper? Saw he DNF’ed

Pulled out with cramp according to Michelle Dillon/Stuart Hayes instagram.
Looks like he was around 20th at the end of the bike leg.

I see a number of pros commenting on the amount of drafting, and if I look at the split times I see quite a few splits with much less than 1sec in between athletes and I doubt they were overtaking all those times.

Incredible finish for 2nd to 4th!

https://www.facebook.com/...eos/457058392111880/

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

Check out Joe Skipper's story for a video of it. What a joke.

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