Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii is considered the pinnacle of triathlon and arguably the most challenging single-day event in all sports. Every triathlete dreams of making it to Kona, which has hosted the World Championship since 1981. It’s known for the most grueling course and conditions that test the body, mind, and spirit.
The race comprises of a 2.4-mile (3.86km) swim in Kailua Bay, a 112-mile (180.2km) bicycle ride with a total elevation gain of 1772m (5814ft), and a 26.22-mile (42.2km) marathon run with intermittent steep stretches around Kona. Each leg must be completed within a specific cut-off time to stay in the race. The total race distance is 140.6 miles (226.3km), and the island’s incredible landscape provides stunning views.
The Ironman is unique in the sense that it has men and women, pros and amateurs, all lining up together for the same race on the same day. However, this year is different. Organizers announced earlier this year that they would be splitting the men’s and women’s World Championship races due to an overwhelming demand for qualification spots and wanting to capitalize on the exponential rise in popularity of the sport. The men’s Ironman World Championship took place in September in Nice, France.
For the first time in the event’s history, a stand-alone women’s Ironman World Championship will be held in Kona on Saturday, October 14. The men’s and women’s races will alternate cities every year moving forward. This year, an Egyptian woman will compete for the first time in history, and not just one, but three Egyptian women will be competing.
Yasmin Halawa, Rawiah Ismail, and Neena Hwaidak have all qualified for the World Championship in Kona. All three of them have competed in the 70.3 World Championship before, which is half the distance of a full Ironman, but this will be their first experience in Kona, where some 2,000 women will line up on Saturday to take on the total 140.6-mile distance. This marks a special milestone for their journeys in Ironman and for Egypt in the sport.
Halawa, a 35-year-old UK-born Egyptian who has competed in five 70.3 World Championships, qualified for Kona by finishing first in her age group at the full Ironman in Barcelona last October.
Speaking to The National from Kona on the eve of the race, Halawa says making it to the Ironman World Championship is “incredible” but she admits she has mixed feelings now that the event has changed and no longer features men and women together.
While she acknowledges that having the stage solely for female triathletes will shed more light on the women’s side of the sport, she feels the essence of Ironman, and especially Kona, has been changed.
“They say that this is the toughest race in the toughest place, because it’s not a flat course and it’s very hot and very humid and you’re going among lava fields and crazy things like that,” she said on Friday.
“The ultimate apex of the triathlon and Ironman is coming to this race, the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, where it has been for like 40-plus years.
“But I really liked the sport because it was the one sport where men and women race equally together, you could be racing with a partner, you could be racing with a coach, you could have teammates, all on the same course, at the same time, in the same conditions.
“And every single Ironman race, except for the World Championships now, you race shoulder to shoulder with the other gender, with friends, it doesn’t make a difference. And I like it, because when it was just one event, you had to be one of the top competitors to qualify.”
