The European Ironman Championship in Frankfurt is always a fast race and despite the 75 Kona slots on offer a tough qualifier. Even when conditions are hot, as they were on Sunday, you can expect some very fast times from the course and calibre of athlete racing at the front of the pack. This year’s race followed that routine with what appears to be a typical distribution of results.
Overall 2017 trends slightly slower than the 10 year aggregate results. The bike trends faster, but the run trends slower, counteracting this fast bike. It’s worth noting that the change tends to be most notable at the median with a heavy weight at the tail end of the race.
| Listed Athletes | Swim Finish | Swim DNS/DNF | Bike Finish | Bike DNF | Run Finish | Run DNF | Overall DNS/DNF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 2574 | 2552 | 0.9% | 2456 | 3.8% | 2317 | 5.7% | 10% |
| 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% |
| 2017 | 2740 | 2702 | 1.4% | 2621 | 3% | 2432 | 7.2% | 10% |
Unusually Ironman directly used the local timing companies results on their athlete tracker. The benefit here is we get accurate DNF and DNS numbers for the race. Although there are some data errors in earlier results, we can see that bike DNF is fairly typical, but the run DNF is a touch on the high side (although not as extreme as 2015). The overall DNF rate is possibly slightly higher as a consequence.
Comparing medians across age groups gives a similar picture to the distribution – little bit faster on the bike and a little bit slower on the run. The pattern appears to hold quite consistently over most age groups.
| Count | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 1332 | 42.7 |
| Spain | 222 | 7.1 |
| France | 167 | 5.4 |
| Italy | 159 | 5.1 |
| United Kingdom | 147 | 4.7 |
| Belgium | 126 | 4 |
| Denmark | 112 | 3.6 |
| Switzerland | 78 | 2.5 |
| Israel | 69 | 2.2 |
| United States | 56 | 1.8 |
| Country | Percentage of Slots | Percentage of Field |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 42.7 | 42.7 |
| France | 8.0 | 5.4 |
| Spain | 8.0 | 7.1 |
| United Kingdom | 6.7 | 4.7 |
| Austria | 5.3 | 1.0 |
| Belgium | 5.3 | 4.0 |
| Denmark | 5.3 | 3.6 |
| Czech Republic | 4.0 | 0.6 |
| Italy | 2.7 | 5.1 |
| Norway | 2.7 | 0.5 |
| Switzerland | 2.7 | 2.5 |
| Russia | 1.3 | 0.9 |
| Poland | 1.3 | 1.6 |
| Hungary | 1.3 | 0.3 |
| Estonia | 1.3 | 0.6 |
| Argentinia | 1.3 | 0.5 |
There’s a wide range of nationalities represented at Frankfurt and the Kona slot distribution tends to follow a similar pattern. Germany takes almost half the slots with a similar proportion of athletes at the event.
Tracking positions in age groups over time helps place a set of race results in context. This year was far from the slowest, the heat wasn’t comparable with 2015, but it was also not among the fastest. You can see there are variations among the age groups and also positions. Generally those in first place perform more comparably with past results; drop off in times is more significant further back.
| Slots | Winner | Average Kona Qualifier | Final Qualifier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M18-24 | 2 | 9:10:25 | 9:12:29 | 9:14:34 |
| M25-29 | 4 | 8:38:36 | 8:46:43 | 8:50:42 |
| M30-34 | 7 | 8:45:45 | 8:52:20 | 9:00:37 |
| M35-39 | 9 | 8:54:42 | 9:09:06 | 9:23:30 |
| M40-44 | 11 | 8:41:18 | 9:06:39 | 9:14:51 |
| M45-49 | 11 | 9:02:08 | 9:24:43 | 9:38:24 |
| M50-54 | 8 | 9:06:43 | 9:27:36 | 9:33:44 |
| M55-59 | 4 | 9:25:24 | 9:49:52 | 10:15:01 |
| M60-64 | 2 | 10:42:05 | 10:42:07 | 10:42:10 |
| M65-69 | 1 | 11:17:12 | 11:17:12 | 11:17:12 |
| M70-74 | 1 | 12:09:31 | 12:09:31 | 12:09:31 |
| M75-79 | 1 | 13:22:48 | 13:22:48 | 13:22:48 |
| F18-24 | 1 | 11:26:46 | 11:26:46 | 11:26:46 |
| F25-29 | 1 | 10:07:19 | 10:07:19 | 10:07:19 |
| F30-34 | 2 | 9:42:15 | 9:54:39 | 10:07:03 |
| F35-39 | 2 | 9:20:39 | 9:26:40 | 9:32:41 |
| F40-44 | 2 | 9:44:57 | 9:53:57 | 10:02:57 |
| F45-49 | 2 | 10:01:40 | 10:13:24 | 10:25:08 |
| F50-54 | 2 | 10:25:20 | 10:25:48 | 10:26:16 |
| F55-59 | 1 | 11:24:40 | 11:24:40 | 11:24:40 |
| F60-64 | 1 | 11:52:49 | 11:52:49 | 11:52:49 |
Based on the start count for the race I’ve estimated the Kona slot distribution and from that the likely automatic qualifying times for each age group. Exact numbers may vary and roll down will affect final qualifiers too. You can review more qualifying times on my Kona qualification page.
Although the race as a whole trended slightly slower than average the top twenty for each age group largely trended faster. At the front of the age group race times are faster than the average. Not generally the fastest, although F35-39 is a clear exception here, but most age groups come in ahead of the average line. So as tough a qualifying year as ever.
You can access a spreadsheet of the full results from Ironman Frankfurt 2017 on my Google Drive.
