Can Sam Long hold onto his lead in the Challenge Family’s US$125k Pro Athlete World Bonus? Following Niek Heldoorn’s second place at Challenge Almere-Amsterdam at the weekend, Long is in danger of losing his season-long lead and a US$25k payout.
Heldoorn’s performance at the European Triathlon Long Distance Championships catapulted him up into second place in the World Bonus standings, just 175 points shy of Long. With just three qualifying races left in 2022, Long will need to place at at least one more race to put him in the clear with Clash Daytona in the USA the obvious choice. While Heldoorn is not on the start line of the next race, Challenge Sanremo in Italy, if he races and places in the top two at Challenge Peguera-Mallorca in October, he would pose a serious threat.
Another big mover in the men’s rankings is Almere champion, Kieran Lindars who moves up into fourth place, tied with Patrick Lange and Reinaldo Collucci, just 100 points behind third place Magnus Ditlev. This year’s World Bonus is anything but a foregone conclusion!
In the women’s’ standings Fenella Langridge retains her clear 250 point lead over Sara Perez Sala while further down the standings, Katharina Wolff and Jenny Nae both move into the top 10 following their first and third placings at Challenge Almere-Amsterdam.
Challenge Family’s World Bonus provides professional athletes with the opportunity to race for a share of a US$125,000 end-of-season bonus as well as a prize purse at the races. The World Bonus starts with the first Challenge Family / Clash event in 2022 and ends with the last race taking place in 2022.
The US$125k bonus pays five deep across both men and women with the top ranked pros taking home $25k, second will earn $16.5k and third will win $12k, fourth $6k and fifth $3k. Full details, including the points system are available here.
