Ironman Lanzarote 2017: Age Group Results and Kona Qualification

Latest statistics for Ironman Lanzarote

This weekend saw the 26th Ironman Lanzarote take place on the island. It maintained its reputation as a tough course with age group times slow-to-average for the race. There were 40 Kona slots on offer at the event, qualifying times appear to fall much closer to course averages. While the race might be a touch slower than usual, the competition up front remained sharp.

Distribution of Finisher Splits at Ironman Lanzarote 2017 Compared with 2008-2016

Comparing this year’s distributions with the previous 9 years shows slower distributions for the 2017 race. That said, it’s mostly at the median rather than the front of the race. The difference for the 5th percentile is much smaller than at the 50th percentile (median). None of the difference are that large over the timespan of the race, but they do suggest it was slightly slower than average.

DNS and DNF Rates at Ironman Lanzarote
Listed Athletes Swim Finish Swim DNS/DNF Bike Finish Bike DNF Run Finish Run DNF Overall DNS/DNF
2008 1242 1201 3.3% 1175 2.2% 1115 5.1% 10.1%
2009 1349 1226 9.1% 1210 1.3% 1147 5.2% 14.8%
2010 1571 1383 12% 1348 2.5% 1285 4.7% 18.1%
2011 1469 1281 12.8% 1254 2.1% 1199 4.4% 18.3%
2012 1554 1540 0.9% 1510 1.9% 1445 4.3% 6.9%
2013 1916 1759 8.2% 1708 2.9% 1646 3.6% 14.1%
2014 2258 2092 7.4% 2031 2.9% 1906 6.2% 15.6%
2015 1786 1614 9.6% 1524 5.6% 1462 4.1% 18.1%
2016 1888 1755 7% 1724 1.8% 1642 4.8% 13%
2017 1510 1413 6.4% 1388 1.8% 1315 5.3% 12.8%

DNF and DNS data points to a typical race with DNF rates falling somewhere in the middle of the 10 years of race data. There’s nothing here to suggest anything exceptional about the 2017 race.

Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Lanzarote 2017
Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Lanzarote 2008-2016

Separating out medians gives an insight into individual age groups. For male age groups the medians are quite consistent in being slower than the historical data, for the smaller female age groups the difference is more variable. Going with the numbers this supports the idea of a slower race. We should still bear in mind that the difference at the median was larger than at the front of the race.

Top 10 Nationalities at Ironman Lanzarote
Count Percentage
Spain 509 31.8
United Kingdom 304 19
Germany 116 7.2
France 107 6.7
Italy 94 5.9
Ireland 63 3.9
Denmark 62 3.9
Belgium 59 3.7
Netherlands 30 1.9
Switzerland 28 1.7
Ironman Lanzarote 2017 Predicted Kona Qualifiers by Country
Country Percentage of Slots Percentage of Field
Denmark 17.5 3.9
Spain 15.0 31.8
United Kingdom 12.5 19.0
Germany 10.0 7.2
Netherlands 7.5 1.9
Sweden 5.0 1.0
Italy 5.0 5.9
France 5.0 6.7
Belgium 2.5 3.7
Canada 2.5 1.1
Japan 2.5 0.5
Poland 2.5 0.5
Turkey 2.5 0.4
Estonia 2.5 0.1
Portugal 2.5 0.4
Czech Republic 2.5 0.2
Finland 2.5 0.6

Lanzarote is very popular in the UK, so it’s no surprise we were the second largest nation there. However Denmark pulled in the most slots relative to their entry size.

Changes in Male Finishing Times by Position at Ironman Lanzarote
Changes in Female Finishing Times by Position at Ironman Lanzarote

Tracking the times for age group positions over the past 10 years places this race somewhere in the middle. Not at slow as in 2015, but mostly slower than 2016. Further back in the age groups there’s a bigger drop off in times, age group winners tend not to differ as much.

Ironman Lanzarote 2017 Predicted Kona Qualification Times
  Slots Winner Average Kona Qualifier Final Qualifier
M18-24 1 10:06:36 10:06:36 10:06:36
M25-29 2 9:27:16 9:35:04 9:42:53
M30-34 3 9:22:57 9:28:47 9:33:12
M35-39 4 9:34:21 9:45:29 9:52:41
M40-44 5 9:36:38 9:45:54 9:55:02
M45-49 4 9:39:59 10:00:47 10:16:00
M50-54 4 10:37:05 10:43:11 10:46:31
M55-59 2 10:51:13 10:57:08 11:03:04
M60-64 1 11:27:52 11:27:52 11:27:52
M65-69 1 13:27:53 13:27:53 13:27:53
M70-74 1 12:57:57 12:57:57 12:57:57
F18-24 1 11:28:06 11:28:06 11:28:06
F25-29 1 10:58:16 10:58:16 10:58:16
F30-34 1 11:11:44 11:11:44 11:11:44
F35-39 1 10:49:50 10:49:50 10:49:50
F40-44 2 11:22:27 11:31:39 11:40:51
F45-49 2 11:01:12 11:07:25 11:13:39
F50-54 1 12:29:47 12:29:47 12:29:47
F55-59 1 12:53:15 12:53:15 12:53:15
F60-64 1 14:25:51 14:25:51 14:25:51
F65-69 1 16:00:11 16:00:11 16:00:11

Based on the athlete count I’ve estimated the slot allocation and the automatic qualification times they give. I know there were roll downs that don’t factor into this calculation, so final times and slot numbers will vary a little. You can compare the times with those from other races on my Kona qualification page.

Top Twenty Male Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Lanzarote 2017
Top Twenty Female Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Lanzarote 2017

Finally, there’s variation across the top twenty performances for different age groups. For the most part, the very front of the race, the Kona qualifiers, produced average times for the course. If there’s a trend in the top twenties it’s probably towards the slower side of times, coming in a bit below average. So it does look like a slower year in Lanza, but more for the middle and back of the pack than those up front.

You can access a spreadsheet of the full results and splits from Ironman Lanzarote 2017 on my Google Drive.

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