This year Ironman Cairns saw a boost to numbers as it took on the mantle of Asia-Pacific Ironman Championship in Melbourne’s absence. Still a moderate size race in comparison with typical numbers in Europe, the US or previously in Melbourne; around 1400 age groupers competed for 75 Kona slots on offer at the event. Results at this year’s race lie around the course averages, perhaps coming out slightly slower with the higher competitor count.
The differences between this year’s distributions and those of the past aren’t particularly significant. Generally they run a little slower in 2016, but only by small margins and the shift appears consistent from the front to the middle of the field. This year’s histograms appear to have slightly more weight to the right of the median line, each chart having a broader top than we see in the aggregate data. Perhaps a consequence of the enlarge field size.
| Listed Athletes | Swim Finish | Swim DNS/DNF | Bike Finish | Bike DNF | Run Finish | Run DNF | Overall DNS/DNF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 891 | 798 | 10.4% | 782 | 2% | 752 | 3.8% | 15.5% |
| 2013 | 1226 | 1209 | 1.4% | 1187 | 1.8% | 1140 | 4% | 6.9% |
| 2014 | 1275 | 1264 | 0.9% | 1230 | 2.7% | 1195 | 2.8% | 6.3% |
| 2015 | 880 | 768 | 12.7% | 747 | 2.7% | 705 | 5.6% | 19.9% |
| 2016 | 1434 | 1415 | 1.3% | 1376 | 2.8% | 1307 | 5% | 8.9% |
There’s been quite a lot of variance in the size of this race. DNS/DNF numbers are comparable with other years that drew over 1,000 competitors to the event. There’s nothing here to indicate an unusual level of DNF at the race or any significant difficulties on the course.
Medians are similarly comparable between the different years of racing in Cairns. There’s no significant or obvious trend in results at this year’s race. Times appear largely comparable with the previous 4 years of racing.
| Count | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | 811 | 56.6 |
| Japan | 372 | 25.9 |
| New Zealand | 52 | 3.6 |
| United States | 33 | 2.3 |
| China | 25 | 1.7 |
| United Kingdom | 24 | 1.7 |
| Singapore | 24 | 1.7 |
| Hong Kong | 10 | 0.7 |
| France | 9 | 0.6 |
| Ireland | 8 | 0.6 |
The cancellation of Ironman Japan brought a large field of Japanese athletes to Cairns this year. In addition to the standard 75 slots of a championship race, Ironman Cairns also carried Ironman Japan’s 30 Kona slots specifically for Japanese athletes. These slots would have been distributed after the normal roll down procedure and aren’t included in my qualification calculations today.
Tracking the change in finishing times for specific age group positions confirms that this year’s race was typical for the course. Generally times fall somewhere in the middle, neither the fastest nor the slowest seen on the course.
| Slots | Winner | Average Kona Qualifier | Final Qualifier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M18-24 | 2 | 10:10:33 | 10:23:13 | 10:35:53 |
| M25-29 | 3 | 9:03:33 | 9:19:23 | 9:48:25 |
| M30-34 | 6 | 8:55:24 | 9:23:43 | 9:41:04 |
| M35-39 | 8 | 9:29:55 | 9:41:34 | 9:48:52 |
| M40-44 | 9 | 9:29:00 | 9:46:16 | 9:55:43 |
| M45-49 | 8 | 9:28:31 | 9:41:12 | 9:49:46 |
| M50-54 | 6 | 9:53:35 | 10:07:22 | 10:19:49 |
| M55-59 | 4 | 9:51:26 | 10:17:43 | 10:40:09 |
| M60-64 | 3 | 10:57:46 | 11:18:10 | 11:33:58 |
| M65-69 | 2 | 11:59:24 | 12:11:03 | 12:22:42 |
| M70-74 | 1 | 13:20:02 | 13:20:02 | 13:20:02 |
| M75-79 | 1 | 16:02:22 | 16:02:22 | 16:02:22 |
| M80+ | 1 | 13:38:23 | 13:38:23 | 13:38:23 |
| F18-24 | 1 | 11:16:31 | 11:16:31 | 11:16:31 |
| F25-29 | 2 | 10:13:58 | 10:29:04 | 10:44:11 |
| F30-34 | 3 | 10:23:34 | 10:36:58 | 10:44:04 |
| F35-39 | 3 | 10:31:19 | 10:38:21 | 10:43:54 |
| F40-44 | 3 | 10:24:34 | 10:35:48 | 10:51:17 |
| F45-49 | 2 | 10:19:15 | 10:23:50 | 10:28:25 |
| F50-54 | 2 | 10:49:28 | 11:03:53 | 11:18:19 |
| F55-59 | 2 | 10:39:25 | 10:57:22 | 11:15:19 |
| F60-64 | 1 | 13:55:00 | 13:55:00 | 13:55:00 |
| F65-69 | 1 | 15:14:37 | 15:14:37 | 15:14:37 |
I’ve estimated Kona slot allocations based on numbers in the athlete tracker, so the exact allocation may have varied slightly. Using this data I can then estimate the automatic qualifying times for each age group in the table above. You can find more data on qualification on my Kona Qualification page. As mentioned, this doesn’t include or take into account the 30 additional slots for the top Japanese athletes. These were assigned after the standard roll down and won’t have affected the standard allocation process.
Overall qualification times don’t differ that much from race averages. This race has usually seen a few fast age groupers at the front and then a broader middle pack behind them. This appears to have been the case again, although with the larger field there’s some suggestion that mid-pack was larger still. Quite a few age groups are faster than average from tenth to twentieth position.
You can access a spreadsheet of the full results and splits from Ironman Cairns 2016 on my Google Drive.
