Challenge Wanaka will switch its focus next year to the half ironman distance, but will still run a full-distance event.
The event in February next year will host the Triathlon New Zealand middle distance national championships, the first time the event has taken place in the South Island for 20 years.
Challenge Wanaka race director Bill Roxburgh said the half ironman was now the more popular race and hosting the national championships should attract a very strong field.
At the 2017 Challenge Wanaka, there were about 2600 competitors across all grades, including junior races. About 1400 were entered in the half ironman, compared with about 130 competitors in the full ironman.
Worldwide, the trend was for athletes to compete in the half ironman races, as there was not such a big training commitment as for the full ironman event.
Challenge Wanaka would still run a full ironman event but it would not be professional.
''Ideally, we would have liked to have had a professional race in both events [half and full], but it is very hard to keep doing a pro race for the full,'' he said.
Roxburgh said it cost between $500,000 and $600,000 to stage the event, which is big money for a town the size of Wanaka.
In last February's event, there had been 20 professionals line up in the full race, but Roxburgh expected more professionals than that to line up in the half ironman next year.
It would be a good lead into the Ironman race at Lake Taupo.
He was confident two-time champion Dougal Allan would still take part in the event.
Allan told Fairfax Media he was unsure where his priorities lay and it was disappointing the full ironman had been dropped.
A half ironman is a 1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21km run, while a full ironman is the more traditional distance of 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run.
The middle distance championships will alternate between the North Island and the South Island every year.
It was last held in the South Island at Lake Hayes in 1998.
