3 Reasons Why You Need to Watch Ironman Cairns
1. There’s more at stake than ever
All of the pro athletes will be a little more tense going into the 8th race of the Ironman Pro Series in Queensland, Australia. Alongside the 5,000 coveted points, there’s a $150,000 prize purse, four slots to the Ironman World Championship, and it is Cairn’s most competitive pro field in its 13-year history.
This will make it very tough for the likes of Braden Currie, Joe Skipper, and Josh Amberger who are fighting desperately for those Kona slots and the 5,000 points on offer. Without a good result here, it most likely spells the end of their chances to compete for the series with only a limited amount of Pro Series Ironmans remaining in the season. Skipper called it “Make or Break” in his latest YouTube video leading into the race.
On the women’s side, most of the top competitors have their slots for the Nice World Championships already booked, so the pressure’s slightly less than the men. However, for a few of them in particular, those pro-series points on offer present a huge opportunity to take the series by the horns.
If reigning champion Kylie Simpson wins here, she will go to the top of the Pro Series leaderboards while Lotte Wilms and Hannah Berry could also see themselves landing in the top 5, putting themselves in contention to become the first-ever Pro Series champion.
And don’t forget... there’s an additional 1.7 million dollars on offer for these athletes depending on their end-of-year rankings.
2. The chase will be on and records could fall
On both sides of the race, it is set up to be a scintillating game of cat and mouse.
The men’s race has some serious firepower on the swim with the likes of Currie, Amberger, and Andrew Horsfall-Turner who will be charging from the front and hoping for a gap of at least 3 minutes to those behind. The women’s race will see Lauren Brandon, Rebecca Clarke, and Lotte Wilms, three of the strongest swimmers in the entire sport, looking to work together to gain some breathing room of their own.
Onto the bike and these two front packs will have a singular focus to stay away from the heavy-hitting bike runners coming from behind. In recent races, we have seen a return to success for these non-swim specialists with the likes of Sam Long proving that it is still possible to overcome almost any swim deficit. Sadly, he pulled out of this one last minute, so it will be up to the others in the field to try and continue his streak.
Two-time winner Kylie Simpson is no stranger to overcoming a swim deficit, running to victory again last year after being twelve and half minutes back after the swim with a 2:51 marathon. This year, however, Wilms will make it very tough for her to gain much time back on the bike, and 4th place at Ironman Texas finisher, Hannah Berry, says her run is coming back better than ever.
On the men’s side, the previously mentioned Skipper will be hoping the work he has done with his new swim coach will see him not so far back out of the water and hopefully among the likes of uber-biker Matt Burton. Those two will be hammering this fast bike course and if they are with the two young guns, Nick Thompson and Ben Hamilton, they could see themselves at the front of the race quicker than we might expect.
If the men’s race does end up coming together before the run, we are in for one heck of a showdown. Last year, Currie set the run course best with a personal best 2:37 marathon but said in the pro panel that he thinks it could take a low to mid 2:30 to win it this year. Skipper’s best marathon is also a 2:37 at Ironman Wales in 2022 while dark horse, Gregory Barnaby boasts a 2:35. It would be anyone’s title to take.
With such stacked rosters, and with this intense game of cat and mouse, we will likely see some lightning fast, record splits and once again, the course records could imminently be shattered.
3. It's arguably the most beautiful race on the entire circuit
Apart from the epic racing that will be taking place, it is well worth tuning in to see the stunning scenes where they are battling it out. Northern Queensland is truly a place like no other with the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest in the immediate vicinity making it the only place on earth where two World Heritage sights meet. There’s a reason this race has won the title “World’s Best Ironman.”
The course starts in the crystal blue waters of Palm Cove before heading out on a stunning, rapid bike course alongside the rainforest before returning to the city of Cairns that comes out en-masse to create an electric atmosphere like no other to cheer on the best in the world putting everything on the line.
This is a world championship-worthy course that has all of the right ingredients to make it one of the most special Ironman Pro Series races we see this year, and with the coverage being improved to higher standards than ever for professional Ironman racing, it is likely to be the most visually appealing we have seen so far.
Catch it live on Ironman Triathlon’s YouTube channel, Proseries.Ironman.com, DAZN, or L’Equipe for International viewers. For North Americans, it is exclusively live on Outside TV. Coverage starts at 7:00 a.m. AEST on Sunday (Saturday 5:00 p.m. EST/ 9:00 p.m. GMT).
