Finding a city which is willing to host the 2027 Ironman 70.3 world championship is probably not the issue. Finding a city which is willing to pay a lot of money for the privilege probably is the real challenge, especially if Ironman has restricted its search radius to North America. But at a certain point, they need to bite the bullet and stop searching for the perfect host city and just take the best host they can get confirmed by the appropriate deadline. And that deadline should have definitely been before people started signing up for qualification races.
Ironman should count themselves lucky that they operate in an industry which is as forgiving as it is. It’s not the first time that they act in a manner which would have been considered sufficiently unprofessional that I would have lost my job over it, had I acted in the same way. And the projects I were responsible for are of far lesser importance than Ironman’s.
To give people an idea of a previous timeline, unaffected by the pandemic, here’s an ST thread started in August 2023 for the 70.3WC and IRONMAN announced it in January with 21 months to go.
Reasonable to assume the 2027 version will be no earlier than late August, that is in 15 months’ time: a stark difference in forward planning.
I think Marbella was announced before June of 2024 before the 2025 qualify season started.
At this point all Ironman needs to do is say, “we don’t have a destination secure for 2027 YET but plan to announce details shortly. If we are unable to make a formal announcement by July 4, athletes who quallify at 2027 quallifying races will be given the following options:
XXX
YYY
ZZZ
They can just filll in the blanks on XXX, YYY, ZZZ and offer some clarity. Minimally people may choose to transfer entry fees to races (not sold out) later in the year which is allowed on the Flex program or race knowing what the fine print are on XXX, YYY, ZZZ because at this moment they have no 2027 race so if you sell units for a product that does not exist, usually there are a variety of consumer protection type clauses to give them confidence (ex: when you buy a home that is not built)
Jones beach NY would fall into this category. It is roughly at the right time of year too. It’s just a stupid Clearwater style draft fest course for a worlds.
They wouldn’t sell you a slot to a location that isn’t publicly known; they would tell you they’ll email you shortly after they announce it with a slot registration.
Though I doubt that they’d do either. We still have a few days left in May, which was the rumoured deadline more than anything else, and a whole month of June, before we all need to panic.
Please re-read “Reasonable to assume the 2027 version [of the race] will be no earlier than late August, that is in 15 months’ time.” I’m just trying to put a bracket on the date they can choose, no less than three weeks before or after Kona. Lahti was in late August.
My compliments, Dev: sorry for not being clearer when I said:
"IRONMAN announced it [the venue (Marbella) and the date: November 2025] in January [2024] with 21 months to go. The qualifying for it stated on 1st July, as normal.
The delay in announcing the venue/date is unprecedented (I did go back to pre-pandemic to check that when that 2023 thread was ‘alive’).
Maybe they are hoping things are going to settle down in the Middle East and make an announcement? Just saying. Some loon started a war out there so who knows.
Yeah this is why I would very much not be a fan of that course. Both on the pro and amateur level it would basically be a draft legal race. But I think as a venue even if one day it makes a lot of sense. I don’t have any inside info, but I raised my eyes a bit when I saw it getting a pro field this year after selling out with positive reviews (despite awful weather) the last couple years.
I wonder if they will use the old swim… The original regular and WC swims started across the river and swam up a bit before heading back downstream. I was there the year the current was very strong and the pros barely made the uphill part of the swim. After all the pros were off, they paused the race and reset to a shortened all-downriver swim. After that year, they moved swim start across the river and 1.4 miles from the start. It normalizes to about 1.2 miles with the current.
They also used a different bike course for the WC version that went over Lookout Mountain. The regular course is flatter and faster.
I think the runs are the same.
I would probably go to Chattanooga in 2027 if I happened to qualify. But I would probably not intentionally seek out a qualification like I did this year for Nice.
As I already did the full WC in Nice, I’m in the opposite boat. I’ve had Chattanooga on my radar anyway and I really enjoy the town and surrounding area.
I had Chatty from a friend at IM going back to November but heard more recently that it wasn’t still in play. Same with Sacramento and Wisconsin and Oceanside. I did the Worlds in 2017 there and really enjoyed it so I wouldn’t be upset if it did end up there.
Chattanooga is a fantastic venue. One of my favorite IM villages. Great city with lots to do and many good restaurants. And I really like everything about the course. I’ve done it twice, and it is kind of local to me, so it doesn’t seem as special as a WC destination for me.
It’s possible they could have double qualification at the same race for 2026 & 2027 WC if they’re trying to fill up this years race. They definitely did that at a couple of races in 2018 as they asked if anyone was interested in South Africa that year, 48 people put their hands up for 50 slots so they called them all down regardless of gender and age group. Someone else must have had a word with his wife and became the 49th
The 2019 in Nice was a proper rolldown as more people were interested.
If they don’t announce before the first qualifiers I think it will be done retrospectively by email, they’ll still get the same slots and they might roll a bit further as people might pass once the post race adrenaline has subsided!
I had a mechanical DNF at Chattanooga 70.3, I was able to coast to the Aid Station at ~45. The Aid Station Captain there told me they are waiting on Georgia to sign off on the contract. She has been running that Aid Station for a number of years at both races.
