While many athletes around the globe are still vying to qualify for the IRONMAN World Championship in Kailua-Kona, 44 Hawaii residents — including 24 from the Big Island — have secured a spot at the starting line on Oct. 10 through the newly dubbed “IRONMAN World Championship Hawaii Drawing”.
There were 77 entries vying for 24 slots designated for Big Island residents, and 120 athletes from the outer-islands seeking the 20 state slots.
The drawing takes the place of the long-standing local lottery program IRONMAN used to keep a Hawaii contingent in the world championship race. That program had always been free for Hawaii residents who qualified, opposed to IRONMAN’s “Kona Lottery Program,” which charged a fee and was deemed not compliant with US government lottery and gambling laws in May, resulting in a nearly $2.