At the end of July, Ironman had already announced in a press release that Ironman Hawaii would also take place over two days in 2023. According to a report in Sunday’s online edition of West Hawaii Today, this is by no means certain. There, Mitch Roth, Mayor of Hawaii County, is quoted as saying “that the two-day event for 2023 is not yet set in stone.”
In Kailua-Kona and in Hawaii County, for example, they want to evaluate and reassess this year’s event in the coming months to determine whether the continuation of the two-day format is feasible. When announcing the 2023 two-day event (October 12 and 14), Ironman announced in late July that its planning was with the approval of Hawaii County. According to the Ironman, 3,800 athletes will start in Kona on the two days next year (in 2022 there were 5,200). Of these, 540 slots have already been allocated in the new qualification period that has been running since the end of August. There are also athletes who have pushed their starting place from the two Corona years to 2023.
About the background interview with Florian Bögge:
Respect and focus on the athlete experience, then Kona has a future
The mayor himself was stuck in traffic for an hour
Mayor Roth’s statement is said to have been made in connection with the list of traffic routes that did not always run smoothly on the two days of the competition. Massive traffic delays are said to have occurred in downtown Kailua-Kona, especially on Thursday in the early evening hours. Roth himself is said to have been stuck in traffic for over an hour when he tried to leave the center.
New round of talks with those responsible for Ironman
“We’re going to discuss a lot of it, and we’ve discussed a lot of it with the Ironman people. I think they also understand that some things happened that didn’t go as planned,” Mitch Roth told West Hawaii Today.
2023 Kona Date Returns to Ironman Website as “TBD”
Incidentally, the two fixed 2023 race days have disappeared again on the Ironman website. At the moment, the Ironman Hawaii event site again says “TBD” – “to be announced”.