After his strong performance at last week’s Challenge Walchsee, Frederic Funk (GER) patiently waited to see his newly-earned PTO-ranking points. After a few days, he was given his points: 86.94 points his 3:32:46 finish time. This meant that Funk was 4:10 – or 13.06 points – slower than the Adjusted Ideal Time (AIT) of the day. To calculate this time, PTO considers the course, past results and the conditions, (for example, extreme weather). Although the PTO’s website gives us a nice insight in athletes’ latest achievements, it’s still hard to compare results from one race with another, Funk believes. “The PTO-ranking is like the lottery,” he wrote on Instagram.
Funk is not the only one who is critical of the ranking. America’s Justin Metzler said on Instagram that he and Sam Long were also disappointed in the points they earned at Ironman Coeur d’Alene for the win and second place. Long earned 92.81 points for his win that day. He clocked a time of 8:07:39 hour, good enough for a new course record, but far from the ideal time that PTO had set for this event. The AIT was 8:02:27 (over five minutes faster than Long went).
When comparing the latest results with the results of races that took place earlier this season, it seems that the PTO has gotten less generous in their points’ allocation. As an example: in the beginning of May, Lionel Sanders finished below the set AIT at Ironman 70.3 St George. He earned 102.53 points at the race. At Ironman Tulsa, Patrick Lange scored above hundred by finishing in 7:45:21, six minutes faster than the time PTO thought would be possible. Lange collected 108.88 points at the race, 20 points more than Funk earned in Walchsee.
