After Sunday's 70.3 Calgary event most of the Pro field in Kona will be set, as the first qualifying round deadline comes on July 29th. Not much should really change though from now until then and we looked at the 65 athletes who should be currently in unless they opt not to go.

Defending champion Craig Alexander and 2010 runner-up Caroline Steffen are leading the current rankings by a wide margin, but behind them the athletes are much tighter together in terms of points. Plus Crowie as the Ironman and 70.3 World Champion gets an auto entry with his validated Ironman start and win in Melbourne. The same thing is true for Hy-Vee 5i50 champion Greg Bennett who put himself in the driver seat with a 9:04:01 performance in Melbourne. 5i50 champion Lisa Norden, 4-time Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington and 70.3 World Champion Melissa Hauschildt (Rollison) did not validate their automatic Kona spots and will not be at the start. 2-time Ironman Hawaii champion Chris McCormack raced Ironman Cairns after his ITU campaign and we should see this Aussie in Kona too.

50 male Pros and 30 female Pros will be able to qualify for the 2012 Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii but with some auto qualifiers the Pro field looks to be at least 83 strong. After Sunday the top 40 male and top 25 female pros in the Kona Points Ranking will be assured of a slot in the big dance provided they register for it. Slots not claimed will roll down to next highest qualifier, and it actually looks like the women's field already has at least two of these roll down slots. With defending Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington (ranked 14), and cycling phenom Karin Thuerig from Switzerland not at the start, that means that Mary Beth Ellis (26) and Michelle Vesterby (28) will move up. Plus Corinne Abraham (29) will be in if she accepts because Mirinda Carfrae is an automatic qualifier. As we said before, Hauschildt would be in too, but is also not planning to race Kona this year. No obvious non-starters in men's field as of yet and with Rasmus Henning at the start in Calgary he will most likely only move up within the top 40 from his current 38th spot.


Top 40 men as of July 25

1. Craig Alexander (AUS) 13970 *
2. Andreas Raelert (GER) 8360
3. Pete Jacobs (AUS) 7305
4. Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL) 7230
5. Cameron Brown (NZL) 6840
6. Sebastian Kienle (GER) 6590
7. Timo Bracht (GER) 6000
8. Frederik Van Lierde (BEL) 5700
9. Marko Albert (EST) 5640
10. Faris Al-Sultan (GER) 5490
11. Dirk Bockel (LUX) 5450
12. Mike Aigroz (SUI) 5360
13. Daniel Fontana (ITA) 5280
14. Petr Vabrousek (CZE) 5260
15. Clemente Alonso-Mckernan (ESP) 5120
16. Ronnie Schildknecht (SUI) 5100
17. David Dellow (AUS) 5000
18. Raynard Tissink (RSA) 4910
19. Joe Gambles (AUS) 4830
20. Viktor Zyemtsev (UKR) 4810
21. Eneko Llanos (ESP) 4800
22. Paul Matthews (AUS) 4725
23. Jérémy Jurkiewicz (FRA) 4720
24. Mike Schifferle (SUI) 4700
25. Paul Amey (GBR) 4690
26. Timothy O’Donnell (USA) 4645
27. Andrey Lyatskiy RUS 4610
28. Luke Mckenzie (AUS) 4570
29. Romain Guillaume (FRA) 4560
30. Trevor Delsaut (FRA) 4420
31. Cyril Viennot (FRA) 4205
32. Matthew Russell (USA) 4180
33. Joshua Rix (AUS) 4095
34. Luke Bell (AUS) 4070
35. Bruno Clerbout (BEL) 3965
36. Michael Lovato (USA) 3925
37. Alejandro Santamaria (ESP) 3920
38. Rasmus Henning (DEN) 3880
39. Sergio Marques (POR) 3880
40. Andy Potts (USA) 3840

With Crowie automatically in as the defending champion (and a qualifying IM in the books) the top 40 include 41st placed Michael Raelert.

41. Michael Raelert (GER) 3830

Names of note outside the to 40 (41)

42. Tom Lowe (GBR) 3810
46. Andi Boecherer (GER) 3650
49. Clayton Fettell (AUS) 3510
55. Mathias Hecht (SUI) 3120
72. Ben Hoffman (USA) 2415
99. Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) 1940

* Auto qualifier

Top 25 women as of July 25

1. Caroline Steffen (SUI) 13320
2. Mirinda Carfrae (AUS) 9995 *
3. Leanda Cave (GBR) 9250
4. Rachel Joyce (GBR) 8910
5. Meredith Kessler (USA) 7440
6. Linsey Corbin (USA) 6820
7. Joanna Lawn (NZL) 6545
8. Heather Wurtele (CAN) 6540
9. Kelly Williamson (USA) 6470
10. Gina Crawford (NZL) 6335
11. Carrie Lester (AUS) 6230
12. Simone Brandli (SUI) 6160
13. Natascha Badmann (SUI) 6005
14. Chrissie Wellington (GBR) 6000 **
15. Jessica Jacobs (USA) 5980
16. Caitlin Snow (USA) 5960
17. Anja Beranek (GER) 5865
18. Sofie Goos (BEL) 5810
19. Tine Deckers (BEL) 5725
20. Kristin Moeller (GER) 5700
21. Amanda Stevens (USA) 5560
22. Susan Dietrich (GER) 5530
23. Sonja Tajsich (GER) 5385
24. Karin Thuerig (SUI) 5300 **
25. Erika Csomor (HUN) 5200

26. Mary Beth Ellis (USA) 5160 ***
27. Melissa Hauschildt (Rollison) 5160 (Is actually an auto qualifier, but no IM event so no Kona)
28. Michelle Vesterby (DEN) 4880 ***
29. Corinne Abraham (GBR) 4830 ***

* Auto qualifier
** Kona non starters
*** Kona July roll downs

Some names of note on the outside of July qualifying:

31. Belinda Granger (AUS) 4330
32. Sara Gross (CAN) 4065
35. Virginia Berasategui (ESP) 3620
36. Amy Marsh (USA) 3495
45. Nikki Butterfield (AUS) 2880
51. Bella Bayliss (GBR) 2640

Some of these Pros might get injured or opt not to race in Kona, and we will update you once we get more information.

The final 10 male and 5 female Pros will be added on August 27, 2012 based on their KPR rank, and not counting those who already qualified and / or declined.