IMA all the way?
What's happening at Ironman Australia?
Years ago Ironman Australia was a destination for many top pros. Check out the honour roll and this is a proven fact. Pauli Kiuru, Peter Reid, Chris Legh, Chris McCormack, Tim Deboom, Normann Stadler, Chrissie Wellington, Lisa Bentley, Belinda Granger, Lori Bowden, Pauli Newby Fraser have all graced this race. So why is now in 2010 that the field is arguably the thinnest we have seen for some time? This is IMG's last swing at running an Ironman in Australia and instead of going out with a bang a small pop might be the order of the day.
The women's field in 2010 is down to 6 women and the men's field took another hit with the withdrawal of Mitch Anderson. Yes the Wellington withdrawal was out of everyone's hands with her bike crash and Anderson's too was unfortunate. But what about the rest of the field? Each year it seems to be getting harder and harder for this event to attract the big name professionals.
It's hard to quantify what exactly a big name professional actually brings to an event but for the Ironman loving Australian fans it surely must be disappointing not to see the stars of the sport collide on the roads of Port Macquarie. And don't get me wrong the organisers have run a tight ship for years but the talent pool is diminishing. The simple fact is that professionals do not like racing in Australia.
And adding to this are the glut of events with more money to splash around to attract the stars. Around the date of Ironman Australia are races like Abu Dhabi, Ironman China, 70.3 Singapore, 70.3 California and Ironman New Zealand. Proof of the money theory is the Abu Dhabi triathlon. With $50k up for grabs it is hard for any professional to pass that up. But not all races are that lucrative.
Ironman Australia is the National Championship but that means little to the group of Australian superstars who dominate the world scene. Names like Bell, Jacobs, Alexander, Gambles, McCormack, Granger regardless of injury would not have toed the line this year. When you compare it to the National Road titles where many of the top Australians flock each year it makes you wonder as to why. Gerrans, O'Grady, McEwen and Davis are regular visitors to Ballarat where the prize money is low and the only reward is the Australian jersey. It would seem that Ironman needs something like that. Something that would bring back those who have looked elsewhere. Forget the internationals. If we lined up all the available Australian talent the race would be a blockbuster.
The new regime that will inherit Ironman Australia in April will have some planning to do. They have to think about what they can do to entice some of the names back. Not mission impossible but certainly it has to be one of the first orders of business.
Comments (6)
by Matthew, 15 March 2010Its quite simple. IMA when it was at Forster was an EVENT. When IMG moved it to Port Macquarie it stopped being an event and became a race. No one will talk of Port with misty eyes like they do about Forster. Its from this basis that the loss of appeal for Port Mac has occured. Not just with the pro's but with age groupers. The main reason pro's like Zack, Newby-Fraser and Kiru raced at Forster was that it was a good race but there was a lot of fun to be had with it. The prize money wasnt an issue for them. Because Port is just a race and more business like, most pro's only look at it as an event to add to their racing CV. Once they've raced Port once or twice they wont be back. I cant see that attitude changing anytime soon.
by Glenn, 13 March 2010For age groupers from southern states, it is more cost effective to travel to IMWA or IMNZ than to Port. Both are better races than Port at the moment, so the challenge for the new management at Port Mac is to redress this and attract the athletes back to their race.
This is simple... prize money, come on, to go through such a hard event and get maybe your airfare back is a joke. Hawaii hasn't topped up the prize pool in 20 years, lets get competitive with other sports. If ironman Aus is going to attract the top athletes it will need to put up some cash instead of pocketing a crap load of money.
by Robert , 12 March 2010It's time to face facts..times are changing and the owners/operators of the IM events in Australia need to accept this going forward.
by beav, 11 March 201070.3 events are now where the action is...take a leaf out of 20/20 crickets book.
This is where you are going to attract the bonanza field...so promote the hell out of it and pour some decent funds towards that direction.
Beav's right...the prep and recovery are just too risky for a pro triathlete. The national cycling champs are not a 3 week grand tour so its no wonder top cycling pro's turn up to that.
Phuket is a joke of a place to hold the AsiaPacific 70.3 champs...nice holiday destination, but come on...move it to Australia at the end of our summer before pro's dissapear and this will generate unprecedented exposure for the sport and resue top level long distance triathlon from the doldrums here.
top pro's are usually doing only 2 ironmans per year, with 1 being hawaii, so why not for the other make sure you can get the dollars to be there, or a guaranteed easy win to get the exposure. cant compare to cycling. the build up and recovery requied to race an ironman doesnt compare to a bike race of a couple of hours. again ironmans happen at ost twice per year, the cyclists could race every weekend.
by Tony, 11 March 2010Pro team cyclists don't race for prize money they have million dollar contracts. A national jersey adds bargining power when renewing or getting a new contract. I don't know this for a fact but it seems a fair assumption on my part.
by Mike , 11 March 2010Why single out Ironman Australia... Look at the top ten names (and times) of Ironman Malaysia. One hour and 39 minute spread between the first ten men. And also, Jacobs was entered Into Ironman Australia before his mishap...