For the first time this season, the IRONMAN Pro Series will stop Down Under for the Asia-Pacific Championship, which takes place this weekend at IRONMAN Cairns.
Boasting a strong professional field, a bumper prize purse and valuable slots to the IRONMAN World Championship later this season, the race is one that you won’t want to miss.
In our preview below, we have all the details you need to enjoy the action this weekend, with start time and streaming information, plus a rundown of the top competitors in Queensland.
Start times and how to watch live
IRONMAN Cairns will take place on Sunday June 16. The gun will go off at 07:40 local time, which corresponds to 22:40 in the UK on Saturday June 15.
On the West Coast, the race starts at 12:40 local time, and on the East Coast, 15:40 local time, both on Saturday.
In the US and Canada, the race can be streamed live on Outside TV, with coverage in the rest of the world available via the IRONMAN Pro Series website here or DAZN.
As always, the ever reliable IRONMAN Tracker is the perfect data addition to support your viewing. If you haven’t got it on your phone already, where have you been?!
Pro Men
On the men’s side, PTO World #1 Sam Long was a late withdrawal from the start list, leaving Italian Gregory Barnaby, Frenchman Arnaud Guilloux and Great Britain’s Joe Skipper to fly the flag for the rest of the world against a strong Asia-Pacific contingent.
Barnaby is the current PTO World #12 and finished eight at the IRONMAN World Championship in 2023, but has never won a full distance event before, with his best result a third place finish at IRONMAN Israel in 2022.
![Joe Skipper IRONMAN Arizona 2022 [Photo credit Patrick McDermott Getty Images for IRONMAN]](https://www.tri247.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Joe-Skipper-IRONMAN-Arizona-2022-Photo-credit-Patrick-McDermott-Getty-Images-for-IRONMAN.jpg)
Skipper, who on the other hand has a number of wins to his name, has struggled for form over the last 12 months, with a win at IRONMAN Lake Placid the highlight of the last year. Tenth at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside and a DNF at IRONMAN Texas is his return on the Pro Series so far in 2024.
Guilloux, who has also struggled for form so far this year, had a strong 2023 with a 12th place finish at the IRONMAN World Championship coming after consecutive Top 8 finishes at full distance events in South Africa, Texas and Austria.
From the athletes racing on home soil, Josh Amberger stands out as the leading name, with the PTO World #29 finishing eighth at IRONMAN South Africa just a week after finishing tenth at the Singapore T100 earlier this season.
Nick Thompson, Caleb Noble and Mitchell Kibby, frequent contenders over the middle distance races in the region, will also be worth keeping an eye on, with veteran pro Tim Van Berkel, third last year, also racing.
Finally, from New Zealand, Braden Currie, Ben Hamilton and Mike Phillips all have the quality to finish on the podium in Cairns, with Currie in particular set for a performance more typical of his calibre after a difficult start to the year.
Hamilton, who has enjoyed a breakthrough season so far with three podiums in Tauranga, New Zealand and St. George, is just 25-years-old and could well upset some of the more established names this weekend.
Pro Women
Leading the women’s field is Hannah Berry of New Zealand, the PTO World #31 who just missed out on the podium last month at at IRONMAN Texas, where she finished fourth in 8:50:50.
Other results for Berry this season include a win on home turf at the Tauranga Half, plus a fifth place finish at IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong. Racing in Cairns for the first time, the 33-year-old starts as the slight favourite.
Australian Radka Kahlefeldt, the runner-up at IRONMAN Australia in Port Macquarie last month, is another leading contender, and like Berry, started the season with a win at a smaller domestic race, in her case the Husky Ultimate.
In addition to that victory, Kahlefeldt got the better of Berry in Geelong, finishing fourth, before picking up a wildcard spot for the Singapore T100 and finishing 11th in her third ever race over the 100k distance.
Another T100 Tour wildcard racing this weekend is Dutch pro Lotte Wilms, who was 12th at the Singapore T100 behind Kahlefeldt but bested both her and Berry with a third place finish in Geelong.
Wilms, who pipped Berry to the last spot on the podium at IRONMAN Texas, will be racing Cairns for the first time, but has enjoyed previous success over the full distance Down Under, with two podiums at IRONMAN Western Australia, and will be hoping to replicate that this weekend.
Other names to look out for include Kiwi athlete Rebecca Clarke, plus defending champion Kylie Simpson. American Lauren Brandon is likely to lead the race for much of the swim and bike, with Italian Giorgia Priarone also worth keeping an eye out for.
Prize Money: What’s on the line?
The prize purse on offer this weekend is $175,000 – with each of the winners collecting a $28,000 share of that total.
As part of the IRONMAN Pro Series, athletes will also earn points as they seek to become the IRONMAN Pro Series Champion and win a share of the $1.7 million bonus prize purse.
In Cairns, the maximum possible score will be 5,000 points for 1st place, with points for all remaining professional finishers diminishing based on the time deficit to first place, at a rate of 1 point per 1 second deficit to the winner’s finishing time.
In addition to money and series points, there will be a total of eight qualifying slots (four MPRO/four FPRO) for the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice and Kona later this season.
The total funds will be paid ten-deep, as follows:
- $28,000
- $17,500
- $11,000
- $8,500
- $6,500
- $5,000
- $3,500
- $3,000
- $2,500
- $2,000
