KPR Update: August Qualifier

All the qualifying races for Kona 2014 have been run, and we have the final KPR ranking that decides who of the Professional athletes will get a slot. There is still some uncertainty whether all athletes accept their slot, and there may still be some rolldown – both from August athletes and maybe also from July athletes that decide not to race after all.

Women

Most of the slots were already clear after Mont Tremblant (Amber Ferreira, Sara Gross, Melnaie Burke, Beth Shutt). The final slots were decided in Copenhagen (Daniela Ryf, Sofie Goos) and Louisville (Jackie Arendt):

Name	Country	Points
Ryf, Daniela	CHE	7810
Ferreira, Amber	USA	7365
Gross, Sara	CAN	6620
Burke, Melanie	NZL	6190
Shutt, Beth	USA	6090
Goos, Sofie	BEL	5365
Arendt, Jackie	USA	5170

In addition to these seven athletes, Leanda Cave validated her automatic qualifier slot by winning in Sweden.

Mareen Hufe narrowly missed the last slot (by 5 points!), she has to hope for a rolldown:

Name	Country	Points
Hufe, Mareen	DEU	5165
Naeth, Angela	CAN	4890
Csomor, Erika	HUN	4780

Update Aug 27th: It looks as if all athletes accepted their slots and that there will be no rolldown for the women.

Men

The race for Kona went down to the wire as well, with Harry Wiltshire (2nd in Japan after racing Sweden a week before) and Chris McDonald (winner in Louisville) snatching slots in the last races:

Name	Country	Points
Bracht, Timo	DEU	5410
Halksworth, Daniel	GBR	5230
McDonald, Chris	USA	5015
Holtham, Elliot	CAN	4725
Tollakson, TJ	USA	4640
Wiltshire, Harry	GBR	4385
Cunningham, Richie	AUS	4335
Zyemtsev, Viktor	UKR	4280
Robertson, Peter	AUS	4215
Brader, Christian	DEU	4075
Passuello, Domenico	ITA	4075
Daerr, Justin	USA	4050
Schildknecht, Ronnie	CHE	3915
Raelert, Andreas	DEU	3610

Timo Bracht will very likely decline his slot, so Domenico should also make it to Kona.

Update Aug 26th: Domenico Passuello tweeted that he has now been offered a slot. It is unclear who declined a slot, Timo is the obvious guess.

Update Aug 27th: Justin Daerr is now marked as a qualifier as well. This means that both Timo and Victor must have declined their slots.

Update Aug 29th: Ronnie Schildknecht is also marked as a qualifier. At this time, it is not apparent who has declined his slot, all athletes still have their “Q”s. The slot was opened because Dirk Bockel (one of the July qualifiers) declined his slot after all. Dirk had to decline because of a hip injury.

Update Aug 30th: Rolldown has been finalized and the official list was announced. Please refer to my Kona Startlist for the full list and ongoing updates.

Update Aug 31st: Apparently, the WTC press release was not the last word: Cameron Brown decided to decline his slot after all, allowing Andreas Raelert to make it to Kona at the very last minute. (I’ve asked WTC about it, they said that athletes have until Aug 31 – today – to complete registration and there could still be changes.) 

The next athletes have to hope for a rolldown:

Name	Country	Points
Thomschke, Markus	DEU	3460
Ambrose, Paul	GBR	3440