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COVID-19 forces Ironman from Hawaii home

Roger VaughanAAP
Triathlon's next Ironman world championships will move from its Hawaii home to Utah in May.
Camera IconTriathlon's next Ironman world championships will move from its Hawaii home to Utah in May. Credit: EPA

Triathlon's most famous race will move from its Hawaii home, with Utah to host the next Ironman world championships.

And when the iconic event returns to Kona on Hawaii's Big Island five months later, it will have two race days for the first time in its 44-year history.

The World Triathlon Corporation, which owns the Ironman brand, has announced the world championships will be held at St George, Utah on May 7.

The 2020 and '21 editions of the Ironman world championships have been cancelled because of COVID-19.

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The original plan was for the race to return next February, but ongoing concerns about the pandemic in Hawaii forced the unprecedented shift.

Instead, the plan now is for two Ironman world championships next year, with the event scheduled to return to Kona on October 6 and 8 in 2022.

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Spreading the event over two days will increase the burden on Kona locals, who have mixed feelings about its impact on their small community.

But it will ease race logistics and mean separate races for the elite men and women.

Many top women have long agitated for a separate race, saying the presence of elite men and top age groupers on the bike leg has impacted their results too much.

St George hosted the 70.3, or half-Ironman, triathlon world championships last weekend - another WTC event.

The Hawaiian Ironman started in 1978 on the island of Oahu and moved to Kona in 1981.

Greg Welch was the first Australian to win there in 1994 and Michellie Jones was the first Australian women's champion in 2006.

Fellow Australians Craig Alexander and Mirinda Carfrae are three-time champions.

No Australian has won Hawaii since Carfrae in 2014.

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