2 DAYS OF KONA BACK FOR 2023

At the press conference for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship this year, Ironman CEO Andrew Messick made it abundantly clear that, as far as he was concerned, the future of the Ironman World Championship included two days of racing. Ironman had added another day to this year’s schedule to accommodate all the qualifiers who hadn’t been able to compete during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Messick was indicating that he was looking for that to continue beyond this year. Turns out Messick is going to get what he was looking for. Ironman has announced that next year’s race will continue the two-day format we’ll see on the Big Island this year, but this time there will be a day dedicated to the women’s race (Thursday), and another dedicated to the men’s (Saturday). This means that the Ironman World Championship will be able to accommodate more people—which will allow for additional slot allocations at Ironman’s regional championships. Ironman will increase the women’s slots at 17 races designated as Women For Tri events. Those include: Ironman Chattanooga, Ironman Arizona and Ironman Western Australia in 2022. Then, in 2023, Ironman New Zealand, Ironman African Championship—South Africa, Ironman Texas, Ironman European Championship—Hamburg, Ironman Asia-Pacific Championship—Cairns, Ironman Coeur d’Alene, Ironman France, Ironman UK, Ironman Vitoria-Gasteiz, Ironman Lake Placid, Ironman Kalmar, Ironman Ireland, Ironman MontTremblant and Ironman Copenhagen will all have extra qualifying spots. All told there will be an additional 1,200 women’s slots for the Ironman World Championship in 2023 in addition to the other increases at events around the world. The 2023 Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Lahti, Finland, will also feature dedicated men’s and women’s race days, which will enable Ironman to offer additional women’s qualifying slots at 20 Women For Tri events around the world for that event, too.