Originally published at: Men’s IRONMAN Pro Series Outlook Post-Kona - Slowtwitch News
The IRONMAN Pro Series is reaching the conclusion of its inaugural season. As expected, the 2024 IRONMAN World Championships have shaken up the standings, with five new faces moving into the critical top 10 positions with just two races remaining on the calendar.
2024 IRONMAN World Champion Patrick Lange sits atop the standings, jumping for fourth to first and with a 770 point lead over second place Matt Hanson, who improved his series points total with his 10th place finish in Kona. Bradley Weiss moved into third, with Matthew Marquardt‘s 15th place Kona leapfrogged him up from ninth to fourth in the Series. But the big mover was Gregory Barnaby, who turned sixth in Kona into fifth in the series, up 10 spots.
The remainder of the top 10:
- Kristian Hogenhaug (+8 spots)
- Jonas Hoffman (+5)
- Robert Kallin (no change)
- Paul Schuster (+2)
- Stenn Goetstouwers (+3)
But with only 70.3 Western Australia and the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships remaining on the calendar, there are precious few points available. Winning both races, and assuming you had two open results available, would net you 5,500 points; 2,500 for the win in Western Australia, and 3,000 for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Title. For example, Hanson has scored in five events already, with his worst result a second place at IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder. If he were to win either Western Australia or place well at 70.3 World Championships, his score could only improve by a range of 191 to 691 points — not enough to overtake Lange.
But the top 10 positions are critical, with a combined prize pool to be paid out amongst those top 10 finishers $650,000 USD. As a reminder, the Series prize pool breaks down as follows:
- $200,000
- $130,000
- $85,000
- $70,000
- $50,000
- $40,000
- $30,000
- $20,000
- $15,000
- $10,000
- to 50. $5,000 each
With that and the scores in mind, here’s who has a shot at the top prize.
The current leader Lange has the inside track to victory. Although he has five points scoring finishes to his name, he has two benefits: first, he has a combined 11,000 points from two IRONMAN victories this year; second, his results at 70.3 events are terrible, with two 17th place finishes gaining him just over 3,300 points total. If Lange races either of the two December events, he’s looking at improving his Series score with mediocre results, let alone if he pulls off the World title double. The last male athlete to do it, depending on how you look at it, would be Kristian Blummenfelt in 2022 (winning the “2021” title at St. George in 2022 and 70.3 Worlds that fall) or Jan Frodeno in 2015.
Weiss is another athlete that is high in the standings, but with the strong possibility of improving on his prior 70.3 results. Weiss has a 7th and 16th in his points total; with two victories, Weiss could push his season points total up by 1,593 points, bringing him over 19,000 points for the year.
Marquardt, Barnaby, and Hogenhaug have the advantage of not having five full scores in their combined points totals. A quality result at 70.3 Worlds would be enough to see them push into the top 3 without having to push a score out. Their respective disadvantage is that their one 70.3 scores are both quite good, with Marquardt earning 2,359 points for 3rd at Mont Tremblant, Barnaby 2,477 for his 3rd in Mallorca, and Hogenhaug’s 5th at Mallorca getting 2,324. One factor against Marquardt is that he has not raced outside of North America this year, and as a medical student, he might not have the availability to race in December.
The men have just over a month off until the Pro Series calendar resumes, with 70.3 Western Australia taking place on December 1st, followed by the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Taupo, New Zealand two weeks later.
Lead Photo: Donald Miralle for IRONMAN
Barnaby: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images for IRONMAN
