Danny and Colin discuss the 2025 World Championships (Men's and Women's) and give their hot takes on the new Kona qualification system.
Key Takeaways
Norwegian Dominance: The Norwegian team's success (winning both men's and women's titles) is attributed to a high-volume training model (25–30+ hrs/wk) that prioritizes threshold work and year-round altitude training, contrasting with the lower-volume, high-intensity USAT approach.
Women's Race Drama: The women's race was an epic battle of tactics. Lucy Charles-Barclay's aggressive, race-dependent strategy led to a late-race DNF, while Taylor Knibb's controlled, course-dependent strategy collapsed ~3k from the finish due to heat exhaustion. Kat Matthews set a new run course record (2:49:00) to finish a close second.
New Kona Qual System Flawed: The age-graded qualification system is failing. It heavily favors the Men's 55–59 age group on flat courses (e.g., 9 of 40 slots at IM California) while making it nearly impossible for women to qualify without an age-group win. This creates an unbalanced championship field.
World Championship Race Recaps
Men's Race (Nice):
Winner: Casper Stornes (Norway), who executed a smart, patient marathon.
Norwegian Team Strategy:
Training: High volume (25–30+ hrs/wk) with a focus on threshold work, not VO2 max.
Support: Year-round altitude training and a strong team dynamic.
Youth Development: Encourages high volume from a young age, a direct contrast to USAT's approach.
Race Highlights:
Sam Laidlow: Overcame a poor swim to finish top five.
Matthew Marquardt: Finished top 11 despite cramping issues.
Amateur Course Issue: Roads were not fully closed to traffic, causing safety and performance issues on descents.
Women's Race (Kona):
Winner:
Solveig Løvseth (Norway), who ran a consistent 2:55:00 marathon.
Key Performances:
Lucy Charles-Barclay: Aggressive race strategy led to a late-race DNF from heat exhaustion.
Taylor Knibb: Controlled race strategy (using a real-time CORE body temp sensor) collapsed ~3k from the finish.
Kat Matthews: Set a new run course record (2:49:00) to finish second, 35 seconds behind Løvseth.
CORE Body Temp Sensor:
Function: Provides real-time core temp data to a watch.
Application: Used by Taylor Knibb to manage heat; Christian Blumenfeld reportedly stayed in Zone 2 during his record-setting IM Texas marathon.
Recommendation: Prioritize core temp data over heart rate in hot races.
New Kona Qualification System
Mechanism: An age-graded algorithm ranks all athletes against a Men's 30–34 benchmark.
Younger athletes → time added.
Older athletes → time subtracted.
Impacts & Flaws:
Men's 55–59 Age Group: Heavily favored, especially on flat courses.IM Maryland: Top 3–4 age-graded finishers were M55–59.IM California: M55–59 took 9 of 40 slots (23%).
Women's Qualification:
Severely limited.Outcome: Women must win their age group to have a realistic chance of qualifying.
Projected Kona Field: ~15% women, with most being age-group winners.
Race Dynamics: Removes on-course racing relevance, as an athlete's adjusted time is unknown.
Proposed Solutions:
Gender-Specific Algorithms: Use separate benchmarks for men and women.
Proportional Allocation: Distribute slots based on the gender ratio at each race.
System Adjustment: Ironman should adjust the algorithm mid-season to fix the imbalance.