Tour Event 1 of the World Fitness Project will include two divisions – the Pro division and the Challenger division. The Pro division features 20 Pro card athletes and 10 athletes who qualified from the online qualifier. The Challenger division is for the next 20 athletes (11th to 30th) from the online qualifier.
Up until this morning, there was only prize money for the Pro division and podium finishers of the Community team divisions. The Challenger division would only receive points towards their Pro card and no prize money.
This morning via press release, the WFP has announced that the top 5 finishers in the Challenger division at Tour Event 1 will each receive $1,000. Sixth place and lower will still not receive any portion of the prize money.
“We are extremely excited to announce this payout for the Challenger Division,” said Jackson Terry, WFP Director of Operations. “We know how hard those athletes worked during the Online qualifier and it only felt right to reward them for doing even more work when they come to Indianapolis.”
The decision likely came after there were rumblings of athletes who are likely to qualify for the Challenger division said they would decline their invite because there was no prize money.
While the online qualifier leaderboard is going to be finalized this morning, it is unclear whether the addition of prize money will entice those athletes who were on the fence about competing.
The addition of the Challenger prize purse takes the total Tour Event 1 prize money up to $411,000. This will be split among the 15 divisions competing in Indianapolis next month.
The WFP has said that it will backfill vacated spots to compete at Tour Event 1 up to the start of the competition. Tour Event 1 is at Grand Park Sports Complex in Westfield, Indiana next month.
