The Return of KONA
For the first time since its debut in 1978, the Ironman World Championship wasn’t held in Hawaii, USA, in 2020. Not due to a long-rumoured global rotation of the long-distance triathlon’s biggest race, but because of the Covid pandemic making qualification for – and travel to – the Pacific Ocean multisport spectacle all but impossible.
Happily, after a summer that’s already witnessed football’s European Championships, Wimbledon and the Olympics, the Ironman World Championship is set for 9 October 2021 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The supermarkets on Palani Road best start stocking up on peanut butter supplies because triathletes are heading back to the Big Island, and boy did we all miss that Kona-shaped hole in October 2020.
Kona isn’t just about the 17 hours of racing on the Saturday. It’s the build-up, the backstories and bike launches; the congregation of
