Ironman Frankfurt 2016: Results and Kona Qualification Analysis

A look at results and Kona qualification at a fast year in Frankfurt, the European Ironman Championship
Latest statistics for Ironman Frankfurt

This week’s Ironman statistics come from Frankfurt where the European Ironman Championship was held over the weekend. Ironman Frankfurt is a competitive event, a regional championship, attracting a large pro and age grouper field. Seventy-five Kona slots are on offer to the fastest age groupers on the day, but claiming one is no easier matter. Frankfurt is a fast race.

Distribution of Finisher Splits at Ironman Frankfurt 2016 Compared With 2003-2015

This year’s race is no exception – times are as fast or faster than the aggregated distribution for the last 10 years. The run in particular trends much faster than we usually see for Frankfurt and results in faster finishing times for this year’s race. The biggest change is seen in the middle of the pack, but front of pack athletes are faster than usual too.

DNS and DNF Rates at Ironman Frankfurt
Listed Athletes Swim Finish Swim DNS/DNF Bike Finish Bike DNF Run Finish Run DNF Overall DNS/DNF
2003 1697 1462 13.8% 1370 6.3% 1288 6% 23.9%
2005 1908 1809 5.2% 1608 11.1% 1730 % 9.3%
2006 2165 1950 9.9% 1956 % % 16.9%
2007 2284 2149 5.9% 2215 % 2121 4.2% 7.1%
2008 2265 2141 5.5% 2201 % 2142 2.7% 5.4%
2009 2593 2202 15.1% 2249 % 2128 5.4% 17.9%
2010 2434 2219 8.8% 2272 % 2119 6.7% 12.9%
2011 2750 2435 11.5% 2366 2.8% 2220 6.2% 19.3%
2012 2885 2552 11.5% 2456 3.8% 2317 5.7% 19.7%
2013 3015 2696 10.6% 2631 2.4% 2460 6.5% 18.4%
2014 3015 2647 12.2% 2591 2.1% 2388 7.8% 20.8%
2015 3064 2552 16.7% 2404 5.8% 2006 16.6% 34.5%
2016 3171 2748 13.3% 2694 2% 2606 3.3% 17.8%

The DNF/DNS rate for this year’s race is also a little lower than usual. It’s a sharp contrast to 2015 where hot conditions resulted in a huge number of run DNFs; in comparison 2016 looks to have been ideal race conditions. Both DNF rates and results distributions suggests this was a favourable year.

Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Frankfurt 2016
Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Frankfurt 2003-2015

Naturally median splits trend faster at this year’s race. It’s not apparent with the swim medians, but otherwise both bike and run splits are quite consistently faster. The opposite is true for the Pro field where median times trend a little slower than before.

Top 10 Nationalities at Ironman Frankfurt
Count Percentage
Germany 1595 50.3
Spain 240 7.6
United Kingdom 157 5
France 155 4.9
Italy 120 3.8
Belgium 114 3.6
Japan 65 2
United States 62 2
Denmark 55 1.7
Switzerland 53 1.7

Not much to note here until I start adding in Kona qualification data, but as with other European races we see a broad spread of nationalities.

Changes in Male Age Group Finishing Times by Place at Ironman Frankfurt
Changes in Female Age Group Finishing Times by Place at Ironman Frankfurt

Following variations in Finishing times over the last decade-plus of racing suggests that this year’s race is among the fastest. As there’s variation with age group and position it’s impossible to choose a definitive fastest race, it depends on your perspective, but we can see that this year’s results are frequently in the top three.

Ironman Frankfurt 2016 Predicted Kona Qualification Times
  Slots Winner Average Kona Qualifier Final Qualifier
M18-24 2 9:01:46 9:03:51 9:05:57
M25-29 4 8:42:57 8:49:11 8:53:54
M30-34 7 8:43:51 8:52:51 8:56:37
M35-39 9 8:51:33 8:57:55 9:04:41
M40-44 11 8:55:55 9:07:49 9:15:17
M45-49 11 8:49:35 9:14:37 9:28:32
M50-54 8 9:19:45 9:29:35 9:36:13
M55-59 4 9:49:10 9:52:42 9:56:08
M60-64 2 10:27:13 10:28:35 10:29:58
M65-69 1 10:51:36 10:51:36 10:51:36
M70-74 1 11:42:45 11:42:45 11:42:45
F18-24 1 10:02:59 10:02:59 10:02:59
F25-29 1 9:50:01 9:50:01 9:50:01
F30-34 2 9:34:59 9:45:03 9:55:08
F35-39 2 9:43:05 9:48:45 9:54:26
F40-44 2 10:04:00 10:08:54 10:13:48
F45-49 2 10:05:45 10:06:01 10:06:18
F50-54 2 10:52:24 10:54:54 10:57:25
F55-59 1 11:41:31 11:41:31 11:41:31
F60-64 1 13:17:22 13:17:22 13:17:22

Based on calculations for the allocation of Kona slots I’ve estimated the automatic qualifying times at this race (actual allocation and times depend on exact start numbers). As mentioned this is a fast race with many male age groups needing to break 9 hours to qualify and female age groups needing to break 10. For comparison with other races and past qualifying data for Frankfurt visit my Kona Qualification page.

Top Twenty Male Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Frankfurt 2016
Top Twenty Female Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Frankfurt 2016

It’s fair to say that this year’s top twenty age group times fall well ahead of the average. In many cases we see some of the fastest top twenty times for this race. The contrast with 2015 results is very apparent – last year’s race saw some of the slowest top twenty times for the event. Here we have a challenging year to try to qualify with some very fast racing from the front age groupers.

You can access a spreadsheet of the full results and splits for Ironman Frankfurt 2016 on my Google Drive.

Latest statistics for Ironman Frankfurt
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