WTC Proposed Rule Changes - what do you think?

[Fegan]

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PROFESSIONAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFYING,
PRIZE MONEY & POLICIES

Athlete Comment Distribution Draft
Ironman Professional Athletes
Introduction

WTC is circulating this document to all its pro members. The policies and rules changes stated in this document are not final.

Before announcing a final version of these rules and procedures, WTC will take into consideration all constructive comments from our pro members. Comments must be submitted to promember@ironman.com no later than July 2nd, Tampa USA dateto be considered. Please include your name and pro number on all comments.

WTC intends to publish the final version of these rules and policies on July 9th with the changes having an effective date of September 1st 2010.

These new rules and polices are the product of long-hours of debate and consideration by WTC's pro working committee. The committee concluded that the current pro incentive policies, which have been in place for over 25 years, are outdated and that the new rules and policies are best calculated to achieve these five primary goals:

    * Rewarding the sport's best athletes for their performances

    * Creating income opportunities for new and regional pros

    * Qualifying the most deserving athletes to the World Championships

    * Controlling the number of athletes qualifying for the World Championships to assure fair and exciting racing

    * Creating additional media interest in pro races through points standings and more frequent head-to-head racing


I. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFYING

Overview and Philosophy/Rationale

The objectives in creating a points based World Championship qualifying system for pros are to assure that the most deserving athletes qualify and to limit the number of athletes in order to assure fair and exciting racing.
Pro Qualifying Program - Kona World Championships

Definitions:

    * "Kona Qualifying" means qualification to the Ford Ironman World Championship held in Kona, Hawaii each year.

    * "Races" means Ironman branded full-distance and Ironman 70.3 events worldwide that are authorized by the World Triathlon Corporation.

    * "Qualifying Year" means the period between September 1st and August 31st.

    * "Kona Pro Rankings" (KPR) means the ranking system to determine pro athlete eligibility to race at Kona.

Effective Sept. 1, 2010, the single-performance slot based system will be discontinued.
Beginning with Races on Sept. 1, pro athletes will earn points for Kona Qualifying correlating to their finish position. The top 50 male and top 30 female pros* in the KPR at the end of each Qualifying Year will qualify to race in Kona. (* The proportion of male to female pros may be adjusted in future years to reflect the then current percentage of registered male and female WTC pro members.)

KPR will be determined as follows:

    * Athletes will be ranked according to the number of points that he or she has accumulated during the Qualifying Year. See the Points Table below.

    * Each athlete's five highest scoring Races will count toward their KPR. All lower scoring Races will be "thrown out".

    * Athletes may accumulate points from any combination of Races PROVIDED that each athlete completes a minimum of one full-distance Ironman race during the Qualifying Year. A maximum of three Ironman 70.3 races are included in an athlete's score.

    * Athletes are not required to do more than one full-distance Ironman race in the Qualifying Year to be ranked. Athletes may score five full-distance Ironman races.

    * Athletes finishing the Ironman World Championship (Kona) race will be awarded points that are retained during the Qualifying Year.

    * Scoring points in Kona DOES NOT fulfill the requirement that each ranked athlete must score in a full-distance Ironman during the Qualifying Year.

    * No points carry forward from one Qualifying Year to the next.

    * The 5% rule is no longer applicable.



Example/Fast Freddy Based on his 5 highest scoring results after September 1, 2010
Race Place Points
2010 IM Kona 2nd 2200
2010 AP 70.3 Championship 1st 1500
2011 $75,000 IM 3rd 780
2011 $50,000 70.3 1st 500
2011 $15,000 70.3 1st ` 250
2011 $50,000 70.3 2nd 440
Total Points 5,230
Example/Steady Eddy Based on his 5 highest scoring results after September 1, 2010
Race Place Points
2010 IM Kona 32nd 150
2010 $25,000 IM 7th 260
2011 $75,000 IM 20th 20
2011 $25,000 IM 7th 260
2011 $25,000 IM 5th 300
2011 $25,000 IM 3rd 390
Total Points 1,120

Automatic Qualifiers - Kona
Past Kona champions will receive an invitation/exemption to enter the pro division in Kona for a period of three years after his or her last championship. Past champions will not be required to qualify during this three-year period. Past champions entering as pros will be required to validate their entry by completing a full-distance Ironman race during the Qualifying Year.
In keeping with the tradition started by Valerie Silk, past champions will continue to have a lifetime invitation to race in their appropriate age group category. Past champions making this election will not be required to qualify or validate their entry. Past champions must abide by all WTC, national and international federations rules regarding professional and age group status and switching between these categories.
Automatic Qualifiers will be accepted into Kona in addition to the 80 available pro slots. If, for example, a returning champion is ranked in the top 30 women, the 31st ranked woman will qualify for Kona.
Entry & Roll-Down
The final KPR will be published as soon as possible after the last Race of the Qualifying Year (end of August) but not later than September 1st. Qualified athletes will have until September 3rd* to complete on-line registration for Kona. An on-line roll-down will be held for any unclaimed slots with entries rolling down to the next highest ranked athlete. Details of the roll-down procedure will be made available at a later date. (* Tampa, Florida USA date)
Wild Card Entries
In 2011 and following transition years, WTC retains the right to award "Wild Card" pro entries into Kona. While Wild Card entries may be awarded at the sole discretion of WTC, these entries, if used, are intended to "fix" any holes in the new qualifying system. Wild Card entries are not intended to provide any athletes relief due to injury, illness or other external factor.
70.3 World Championship Qualifying
Pro qualifying for the 2011 Ironman 70.3 World Championship will be based on a similar format with the primary difference being that full-distance Ironman races will not count in the pro rankings for this Championship. Details will be announced as soon as the 2011 Ironman 70.3 World Championship race date is announced.


II. PRIZE MONEY POLICIES
All Ironman races will comply with these prize money standards (This does not include the two World Championship events which have separate prize standards)
Championship Events

    * Ironman $100,000+ (Paying through 10th Place)
    * 70.3 $75,000+ (Paying through 10th Place)

Including Asia Pacific 70.3, U.S. 70.3, European 70.3 and regional Ironman championships to be announced
Ironman Series Events

Ironman Series events will offer total prize purses in one of two amounts:

    * $25,000 (Paying through 5th Place)
    * $75,000 (Paying through 8th Place)


70.3 Series Events
Ironman 70.3 Series events will offer total prize purses in one of two amounts:

    * $15,000 (Paying through 5th Place)
    * $50,000 (Paying through 8th Place)

Notes:

    * The total amount of 2011 prize money will exceed the total amount of prize money offered in 2010.

    * At minimum 2010 events will pay prize money as advertised.

    * The 8% Rule is no longer applicable.

    * The prize money break-down for each prize purse amount and the 2011 event listing will be provided at a later date.


III. ADDITIONAL POLICY CHANGES

    * A one-day Pro License will be offered to allow local and regional pros to compete at events in areas of the world where there is only one Ironman race such as 70.3 Philippines. A one-day license will be more affordable for these athletes to participate in one event. The suggested one-day fee is $250 USD for 70.3 races and $500 USD for full Ironman races. One-day licenses may be "upgraded" to an annual license with the one-day fee credited toward the annual $750 fee.

    * A Pro membership 'scholarship' program will be available to waive or reduce membership fees for athletes from developing countries who can't afford to pay the membership fee. Local Ironman race directors will recommend deserving athletes.
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I suppose for the TBB guys, racing 5 events isn't difficult BUT do you want to be forced into racing WTC rather than Rev3 / Challenge etc?

[Matthieu O’Halloran - "M@"]

Hey I got this email this morning and I have mixed feelings about it.

One thing is clear, is that they are on a mission to reduce the pros racing in Kona.

A smaller pro field, means more spots for the age groupers and less worries about big pro groups on the bike leg.

But who knows? They might change everything again in a few months 

[Fegan]

It looks to me to say - no more of the Crowie tactics of only doing Kona as your single IM. Also maybe a sign that Rev3, Abu Dabi and challenge are serious draws to the pro athlete.

Although with so many 70.3 races now, it's not as difficult to rack up the points, maybe as they'll now be two tiers of prize money, people will need to think about whether to race for points or money or to forget Kona all together and follow the better races and prize money.

Not sure how the sponsors would take it though as Kona is the big prize?!?

[doc]

ill take a look and get back to you .

[Jocelyn Wong - "Wongstar"]

they mentioned this at the pro meeting today and said it's supposed to be confidential...OOPS!   

[Sugar]

confidential... it's all over twitter land haha

[Dead Keen]

I am not a pro but...

1. Without the points table, you can't see what it would actually mean in practice.
2. With the old system, you knew you were going to Kona a long way out.  Now you won't know until early September.
3. I think if you win an ironman, you should go to Kona.  Now that might in practice be achieved by giving a large number of points for winning.
4. There needs to be some sort of live update on who has what points.  That way, you can make a decision as to whether you need to do another two races or whether you will probably have enough points as things stand.
5. It may encourage people not to pull out of a race if things are not going perfectly well but still ok-ish.
6. It will encourage people to do more ironmans. 7th in a 25k ironman is worth more than 1st in a 15k 70.3

[doc]

ok
i have had a look at the rules
and then had  the points system worked out for me by several of our athletes with much better iq than me .
so here is my take .

we have been constructively  pointing out where there are problems and how to overcome them here on this site .
so i believe when wtc  actively  makes positives moves to rectify athletes concerns
its a very good thing .
it will be viewed by intelligent athletes , sponsors and discerning age groupers as more than one step in the right direction.

well done .

yes , its not the whole enchallada but pro athletes should recognise it is a very valid attempt to improve the sport and some of its inequities .

on reflection .

1/   i believe that  the direction of  having less pros at hawaaii   is a very good thing ,
sorry if it offends some and some even in my group , but i believe its a world championship .

so i applaud that .


2  i have  always campained for ironman  need to be iron man , and qualify by doing ironman races .
if the point score  , heavily favours  people who race ironman over 70.3

then i applaud that
70.3 is not ironman , no where near it .
it correlates more to itu olympic distance than ironman .
that should be reflected in the points score

3/  if the points score  encourages 2 ironman races and 3 70.3 to qualify for hawaaii
then i applaud that  also .

4/ if you put in a shift and finnish an ironman and your not linked to prizemoney of how fast the winner goes , then thats a massive win for the sport and i applaud that


my only point that i think , is letting down the wtc wish to develop more athletes
is some ones insistance of top 5 and top 8 .
if they could see how much harm this does to the future development , i am sure they will take another look at this .

you can only advance the cause of making the pro development by giving slower athletes  a career path to follow .
to place these restrictions on a money restricted sport
only diminishes development .
if more focus was put on making 67 8 9 and 10th
be financially viable .
so an athlete can plan travel expences accom and food and know if the finnish 4th 5th 6th or 7th , they go home with a profit for the experience .
but also if you finnish 8th 9th and 10th  in the hardest days racing in the world  that you cover your excpenses .
that is not too much to ask and not too ask for now   ,
then in the future when more money is available we all need to think in a reverse way ,
if we want a 100 hard charging fully professional athletes on our books we have to make the  prize purse strong ,not in the winners purse but in our rank and file pros .
then the sport will develop.


if we can explain that in a rational way to wtc ,as how it will grow the participation and performance levels of pros , i am sure they will listen ,
but top 10 men top 10 women and split the purse how ever large or small sends a statement to those out side the sport .
we cant shrink the number
its a step backwards and gives wtc competitors a weapon to keep beiting them with .

for me
i think some very positive steps foreward .
lets all work together with the good will shown, to make it better for every body
well done wtc!
















 

[DamienC]

Doc, I agree with you that the purse needs to be large enough in the bottom half to allow developing pros to, at the least, cover their expenses.  But I don't think the money should come from the top half.  The incentive to make big money needs to remain, and the gaps between the places needs to remain large, or else I feel you'll have some people just cruising through because "the difference in pay day just isn't worth the extra effort".

Maybe it's just me, but it looks like IM have at least bothered to put some more thought into this proposal than some of them they've had in the past.  It still has some wrinkles that need to be ironed out, but it is a step in the right direction.  Will the next step be a return to the Ironman World Series?

[doc]

hi
damien c
i agree it should not come from the top
but
mate its imperitive it comes from some where .
most winners have sponsorship , the people at the back end tend to have no money sponsors .
so we agree
as to the series
only the dat stuffs that up

i have said for some time if they shifted the date , then it makes it very viable ,
but that is a pipe dream but to have the biggest race
where they have the joke  oh i mean clear water  in nov  and shift both date and place
of the v70.3 world champs .
it could be great for the franchise

then of course people could  do  3 iromans a year out side hawaaii
and make that the qulifying series
but
for now  a nice step i n the right direction  and we only need them  take it back to top 10

and its a real step foreward for the sport

[panda]

1. Without the points table, you can't see what it would actually mean in practice.
2. With the old system, you knew you were going to Kona a long way out.  Now you won't know until early September.
3. I think if you win an ironman, you should go to Kona.  Now that might in practice be achieved by giving a large number of points for winning.
4. There needs to be some sort of live update on who has what points.  That way, you can make a decision as to whether you need to do another two races or whether you will probably have enough points as things stand.
5. It may encourage people not to pull out of a race if things are not going perfectly well but still ok-ish.
6. It will encourage people to do more ironmans. 7th in a 25k ironman is worth more than 1st in a 15k 70.3

If the number of events (and therefore available points) is constant from year to year, then the number required to qualify will be relatively stable in the same way that the number of points required for survival in the english premier league (where the total number is not constant because a draw creates two points whilst a win creates three) is usually a few points either side of 40.  I would expect fluctuations in the first few years as athletes' race entry strategies settle down. 

So actually you may well find that the stronger athletes can relax (and earn some money elsewhere) by June if they're pretty sure they've done enough.  From the worked examples, it looks like the top performers at Kona won't have much to do to re-qualify.

[Dead Keen]

1. Without the points table, you can't see what it would actually mean in practice.
2. With the old system, you knew you were going to Kona a long way out.  Now you won't know until early September.
3. I think if you win an ironman, you should go to Kona.  Now that might in practice be achieved by giving a large number of points for winning.
4. There needs to be some sort of live update on who has what points.  That way, you can make a decision as to whether you need to do another two races or whether you will probably have enough points as things stand.
5. It may encourage people not to pull out of a race if things are not going perfectly well but still ok-ish.
6. It will encourage people to do more ironmans. 7th in a 25k ironman is worth more than 1st in a 15k 70.3

If the number of events (and therefore available points) is constant from year to year, then the number required to qualify will be relatively stable in the same way that the number of points required for survival in the english premier league (where the total number is not constant because a draw creates two points whilst a win creates three) is usually a few points either side of 40.  I would expect fluctuations in the first few years as athletes' race entry strategies settle down. 

So actually you may well find that the stronger athletes can relax (and earn some money elsewhere) by June if they're pretty sure they've done enough.  From the worked examples, it looks like the top performers at Kona won't have much to do to re-qualify.

I agree that the stronger people will be able to relax earlier in the year but for people who generally come second or below that might not be the case. 

I think it could be a lot more sensitive that the English Premier League.  There everyone:

- plays the same number of games;
- gets the same number of points for winning;
- has no choice about getting relegated. 

With this system, people:

- Choose how many races they do.  This means that they can change their behaviour based on (i) how they are doing (ii) how others are doing, and (iii) what they think others might do.

- Get more points for some races/positions than others.  So if there are 23 different IMs (and points are weighted towards winning, which is a guess) then it will make a big difference for everyone else if someone wins five IMs in a year or not.  It also matters if that person is a qualifying Kona champion since that takes lots of points out of the system.

- Some people may decide not to go to Kona.  So if you think you will be 33rd in the table, do you still prepare for Kona in case some people drop out for injury or cost reasons?

Some other thoughts:

1. It will give more incentive to do early season races as that way you get more opportunity to adjust your racing strategy during the year.

2. There needs to be a tie breaker rule (e.g. what if 3 people are in 30th place with the same number of points?)

3. Unless you are certain you are safely up the table, why would you bother doing a non-WTC race?

[JamesCunnama]

Unless you are certain you are safely up the table, why would you bother doing a non-WTC race?

Well exactly. Where races have to compete for big-name athletes, it is a master-stroke! And you can't really fault WTC for that. And if their prize money keeps up with the times, then I see no problem with it either.

I certainly don't want to see WTC gain a monopoly on long triathlon, but as it stands the door is still open for other events - they are just going to have to work harder and pay bigger prize-purses to get the big names racing their events. Win! 

[Fegan]

I think it'll be interesting to see if any big sponsors throw their weight behind a non-WTC event. e.g. Abu Dahbi pump so much cash into a single event that its worth missing out on Kona, sort of like Hy Vee.

Or a manufacturer backs Challenge and pushes their athletes away from WTC and into doing Wanaka, Spain, Copenhagen and the new UK event (when it comes) more than enough races to keep an athlete busy.

Could it be the start of multiple series and titles? Maybe it'll get like boxing!

[jvigaray]

IMO the general idea is good but they still need to fix some points . These are the ones :
-September deadline . It´s way to close to Kona , they should allow plenty of time to prepare a triathlete to the Big show. I think 30th of June could be better . Following races would count for following year .
-Kona placing should score for next year rankings .
-70.3 points score too much compare to the effort of an Ironman . I think winning an IM should count the same amount of points than winning 2.5 or 3 70.3 race.
-Northamerican triathletes or the ones living there have an advantage as there are a lot more races in the US than in the rest of the world . European races are all between june and august , that leaves not much time to rest between races.
-Kona slots . 50male-30 female ? I think 60-40 would be more fair.

I think i had more points to discuss but that´s it for the moment 
-Oh , agree that winning an Ironman , or a certain one , should give an automatic slot .