Over 7,750 athletes from 117 nations registered to participate in IRONMAN VR12. The IRONMAN VR12 half iron distance simulation saw around 3,950 finishers.
The IRONMAN VR12 IRONMAN 70.3 half-distance simulation required athletes to complete a 5km run, 90km ride, and 21km run between Friday, June 19 at 14:00 ET (18:00 GMT) and race close on Sunday, June 21 at 19:59 ET (23:59 GMT).
Competitors who raced in the, more popular, Classic Division could do so anywhere, indoors or outdoors. Here, athletes could complete the three segments in any order and were not required to do the segments consecutively.
The 1,900 athletes who registered for the third race in the IRONMAN Virtual Racing Championship Series were bound by a different set of rules over a four-week long regulated age-group competition. This is designed to reward top-performing athletes in a structured and competitive virtual environment.
An athlete’s overall standing is based upon their top three performances in aggregate over a four-week period. Athletes competing will have the opportunity to earn race slots to the 2020 edition of the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship (to be scheduled in early 2021) with a total of 75 qualifying slots allocated across age groups for top performers.
Bringing the IRONMAN community together virtually, the event organiser notes that its IRONMAN Virtual Club continues to grow – and now has more than 107,000 members on the platform with thousands completing IRONMAN Virtual Club Challenges since its recent launch.
IRONMAN VR Pro Challenge
The 12th edition of the IRONMAN VR Pro Challenge saw Skye Moench of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Andi Boecherer of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, take top honours in the professional women’s and professional men’s races, respectively.
Three professional women and three professional men took to the virtual pavement battling it out for IRONMAN VR12 Pro Challenge bragging rights. Athletes undertook an outdoor 5 km run in a setting of their choice, before hopping on their trainers to tackle a 90 km bike ride on a portion of the iconic IRONMAN World Championship bike course in Kona, Hawai`i, utilizing Official Virtual Cycling partner ROUVY’s platform.
IRONMAN Virtual Racing by the numbers
There have now been just over 135,000 finishes across all IRONMAN virtual races (VR1 to VR12).
From IRONMAN VR8 to VR9, athletes who wanted to compete in IRONMAN VR races with officially monitored times could sign up for the Challenger Division. Since VR10, this has now been renamed the Championship Series Division. Here, activities must be completed outdoors or on the ROUVY indoor cycling reality platform to log an official result (results as at time of writing):
IRONMAN VR12
Championship – 1,144 finishers (1,932 registered); IM 70.3 simulation
Classic – 2,806 finishers (5,856 registered); IM 70.3 simulation
IRONMAN VR11
Championship – 1,511 finishers (3,154 registered); Sprint simulation
Classic – 7,975 finishers (12,668 registered); Sprint simulation
IRONMAN VR10
Championship – 2,055 finishers (3,639 registered); 5150 simulation
Classic – 7,312 finishers (12,538 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR9
Challenger – 2,148 finishers (3,830 registered); IM 70.3 simulation
Classic – 3,574 finishers (7,275 registered); IM 70.3 simulation
IRONMAN VR8
Challenger – 3,560 finishers (6,113 registered); 5150 simulation
Classic – 7,909 finishers (13,635 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR7 – 17,085 finishers (25,014 registered); Sprint simulation
IRONMAN VR6 – 12,744 finishers (21,238 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR5 – 8,257 finishers (14,881 registered); IM 70.3 simulation
IRONMAN VR4 – 14,549 finishers (23,743 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR3 – 20,264 finishers (33,203 registered); Sprint simulation
IRONMAN VR2 –16,375 finishers (22,983 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR1 – 6,695 finishers (11,039 registered); IM 70.3 simulation
www.ironmanvirtualclub.com
www.ironman.com
