This was our preview of IRONMAN 70.3 Western Australia 2024 – you can click here for a full report on how Marta Sanchez and Gregory Barnaby claimed pro wins in Busselton.
It’s the penultimate stop in the IRONMAN Pro Series on Sunday as IRONMAN 70.3 Western Australia takes centre stage.
There’s a maximum of 2,500 points towards the standings and a total pro prize purse of $75,000 up for grabs, plus the potential for some big changes at the top of the men’s season-long competition – read on to find out more.
The event takes place in Busselton and is the Asia-Pacific Championship and the perfect build in to the 70.3 Worlds which take place in New Zealand in a fortnight.
The 1.9km swim starts from the Busselton Foreshore and stays close to shore, meaning less exposure to the weather and better swim conditions.
Both the bike and run are flat and fast, with the former a one-lapper that heads along the coast initially, before entering the spectacular Tuart Forest. The half marathon features two laps which go east first before heading back to pass along the iconic Busselton Jetty.
In our preview piece below, you can find all the details you need on start times, streaming and who to watch out for in the professional men and women’s fields.
How to watch, start times and live tracking
The race takes place on Sunday December 1. The pro races will begin with the men at 05:30 local time, followed by the women five minutes later. That corresponds to 21:30 / 21:35 in the UK and 16:30 / 16:35 Eastern Time, both on Saturday November 30.
As part of the IRONMAN Pro Series there is live coverage which is embedded below so you don’t have to leave this page.
The race will be broadcast for free across multiple platforms for global viewers including proseries.ironman.com, Outside TV, DAZN, L’Équipe in France, and YouTube among others.
The ever reliable IRONMAN Tracker is the perfect data addition to the live coverage too, whether for the pro races or following friends or family in the age-group events.
Pro Men
Bib numbers one and two are Gregory Barnaby (ITA) and Kristian Høgenhaug (DEN) and the focus is also very much on them from an IRONMAN Pro Series point of view.
They currently sit fifth and sixth in the standings but have raced just four of the maximum five races in the series this year, meaning strong performances could easily see them overhaul current leader Patrick Lange, with the IRONMAN World Champion having finished his season.
The maths and full details are here but the difference in the bonuses are huge – fifth place for example at the end of the campaign nets $50,000 while first collects $200,000.
So it’s not all about winning as the points decrease by one per second behind the winner and Barnaby needs to get to within seven minutes and 16 seconds of the winner in Busselton to move ahead of Lange.
Both have had excellent – but busy seasons – each making the top 10 at the IRONMAN World Championship behind Lange in what was their third full-distance race of 2024.
And as you’d expect there’s plenty of southern hemisphere talent taking them on, including Aussies Nick Thompson, Matt Burton and Jake Birtwhistle plus Kiwis Mike Phillips, Ben Hamilton and Sam Osborne.
Pro Women
Denmark’s Maja Stage Nielsen is the highest-placed athlete in the women’s standings in third but the maths means she can’t move any higher than that as there’s too big a gap to Kat Matthews in second, who will almost certainly move above Jackie Hering into top spot if she finishes the 70.3 Worlds.
Nielsen has had a consistent year which has been focussed on the Pro Series, with the highlight so far her runner-up spot to Hering at IRONMAN Hamburg.
Bibs #2 and #5 respectively are Dutch duo Lotte Wilms and Els Visser. Wilms has raced no fewer than four IRONMANs this season and was eighth last time out at the IMWC in Nice. But that tally is topped by Visser who take taken in a staggering 14 events in 2024 including five at full-distance!
She’s racked up nine podium places including three wins and should be right in the mix again.
Home hopes are led by Penny Slater and Grace Thek.
Prize Money: What’s on the line?
The prize purse on offer this weekend is $75,000 – with each of the winners collecting a $12,000 share of that total.
And as we’ve mentioned as part of the IRONMAN Pro Series, athletes will also earn points as they seek to become the IRONMAN Pro Series Champion and win a share of the $1.7 million bonus prize purse.
In Australia, the maximum possible score will be 2,500 points for 1st place, with points for all remaining professional finishers diminishing based on the time deficit to first place, at a rate of 1 point per 1 second deficit to the winner’s finishing time.
In addition to money and series points, there will be a total of eight qualifying slots (four MPRO + four FPRO) for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, Spain in 2025.
The total funds will be paid ten-deep, as follows:
- 1. $12,000
- 2. $7,000
- 3. $4,250
- 4. $3,500
- 5. $2,750
- 6. $2,250
- 7. $2,000
- 8. $1,500
- 9. $1,250
- 10. $1,000
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