Australian Shortis will be competing in the 2011 event, and the two-time Ironman WA champion will be surrounded by a stacked field, including 2010 champion Courtney Ogden, Germany’s Timo Bracht and Aussie Luke McKenzie. McKenzie, Ogden and Bracht are all coming off of successful Kona finishes; 9th, 16th and 5th place respectively.

2010 defending champ, Courtney Ogden

While Ogden has home field advantage over the other members of the men’s field, he has struggled with injuries for much of the season. The question of fatigue for him and the other top-contenders comes into question as well, with Kona having wrapped up only eight weeks ago. McKenzie, who raced his first Ironman here in Busselton in 2004, has made radical changes to his diet and training that showed big gains in Hawaii, and he’s excited to see how they will pay off on race day. “I know I have the fitness to get to that next level, everything just has to click like it did on Kona,” he said at the pre-race press conference. “The nature of this course means that you have to work hard in every leg of the race and I love that.”

The flat course is also appealing to Bracht, who said straight-out that he feels his fastest time might be had on Sunday. “I am well prepared,” Bracht said. “I think I have the potential on Sunday to finish this race in under eight hours.” In perhaps a superstitious move for the German Commerzbank team member, he is opting to race on a different bike than he did in Kona, telling the audience at the pre-race welcome dinner that he was less than impressed with how his previous bike performed in Kona, and the bike he brought to Australia, while an older model, helped him win two other Ironman races so he felt it was a luckier ride.

In the women’s race, hometown favorite and defending champion Kate Bevilaqua is largely touted as the one to beat. Bevilaqua had a less-than-stellar race on Hawaii in October, but she has bounced back and says she feels stronger than ever. “I took some time off after Kona where I did not finish after not being able to hold anything down on the bike,” she said. “Personally, training has been going great since returning from the U.S.A., and I feel that I am in better shape than last year. This race is like home to me.”

There are several women out there who hope to dethrone the hometown girl, including American Hilary Biscay and 2010 Ironman Australia champion Carrie Lester, who are each racing Busselton for the first time. Both Lester and Biscay have made recent training and coaching dust-ups. “I am coming into this race with good health and a new coach after what I describe as a couple of rough seasons,” admitted Biscay. “This is my first test of my new training program.”

Bevilaqua has extra motivation to do well on Sunday in order to raise the spirits of her family, who lost their home last week in a large brush fire that ravaged parts of the Margaret River Valley— less than 100 kilometers from the race site.

This will be the eighth running of Ironman Western Australia, a course known for its beautiful swim around the Busselton Jetty, its flat and fast bike through the Busselton countryside, and often hot run along one of Western Australia’s most pristine coastlines. Stay tuned for our post-race report.