COEUR d'ALENE - Craig Alexander, two-time Ironman World Champion, will be competing in the Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene on Sunday.

Race director Mac Cavasar confirmed Thursday that Alexander will be wearing bib number 23.

"I always love a new race venue, and I hear the scenery in Idaho is brilliant," Alexander wrote in his blog.

Under the new Ironman World Championship requirements, Alexander is required to race one Ironman in 2011 to qualify for Kona, according to triathlete-europe.

Alexander, who turned 38 on Wednesday, said illness forced him to withdraw from Ironman Australia in May.

"I was also excited to get my Kona-qualifier requirement out of the way early enough in the season that I could race with my usual frequency in the latter months of 2011," he wrote. "But illness is illness, and health is priority No. 1, so obviously that plan had to be changed."

Alexander won the world title in Kona in 2008 and 2009 and was fourth last year.

He said he regained his health for Sunday's race.

The man called "Crowie" is an especially strong runner. He'll will face challenges from four-time Ironman Champion, Canadian Tom Evans and two-time Ironman champion, Maik Tweksiek from Germany. Twenty-three-old Logan Franks, a Marine who finished 52nd at Kona last year, is also in town for Sunday's race.

Australian Ali Fitch, 38, will also be racing in Ironman Coeur d'Alene this year. She was second at IM Canada in 2008, and 2nd at IM Malaysia in 2007. She hasn't been racing for about four years due to injuries and a bike accident, trizone.com reported.

Fitch will be up against Julie Dibens from Great Britain and Americans Cait Snow and Meredith Kessler. Kessler was second at last year's Ironman Coeur d'Alene and scored her first Ironman win at Ironman Canada.

The prize money for Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene is $25,000, down from last year's $50,000.

Ironman Coeur d'Alene carries 1,000 qualifying points for Kona.

This year's prize purse for the top male and female pros:

1st, $4,500; 2nd, $3,00; 3rd, $2,000; 4th,$1,500; 5th, $1,000; 6th, $500.

According to the World Triathlon Corporation, the 2011 pro qualifying system for the Ironman World Championship in Kona has been updated.

"With this update the prize money for events has been changed for many events, and Coeur d'Alene is one such event," a statement said. "For the U.S. events there will be an alternating of the larger prize purses between Ironman Coeur d'Alene and Ironman Lake Placid on a yearly basis."

One year Lake Placid will have a larger prize purse and the next Coeur d'Alene will. In 2012 the Ironman Coeur d'Alene will once again have a larger prize purse.