Ironman Lanzarote 2018: Age Group Results and Kona Qualification

Latest statistics for Ironman Lanzarote

Ironman Lanzarote took place on Saturday. I don’t think the race needs much introduction – a long standing event with lots of hills and wind to deal with – one of the toughest of the Ironman races. It still draws a decent mid to large sized field and offers a total of 40 Kona slots for the fastest age groupers. This year’s race saw some quite significant changes to the bike course- missing the trip down to La Santa; that will obviously impact on times.

Distribution of Finisher Splits at Ironman Lanzarote 2018 Compared with 2008-2017

It’s clear to see that, when compared with the previous decade of results, this year’s bike was much slower. We already know there were big course changes which are bound to be a factor, but with only one year on the new course it’s hard to comment further. Swim and run also trend slower, but at least in the case of the run, this isn’t a significant difference. The impact is a slower overall distribution.

DNS and DNF Rates at Ironman Lanzarote
Year
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%
2018
1738
1593
1593
1593
8.3%

The results set doesn’t include any splits for those who DNF. While those who DNS are clearly indicated in the data, without separate splits I can’t determine where athletes pulled out on the race. So we have a DNF figure that’s hard to compare with previous years where DNS numbers are sometimes mixed in. I suspect this level is fairly typical for Lanzarote though.

Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Lanzarote 2018
Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Lanzarote 2008-2017

Medians follow the patterns seen in the distributions above with some variations across the age groups. That means we mostly see slightly slower swims, similar run splits and slower bike splits from this year’s age divisions.

Top 10 Nationalities at Ironman Lanzarote
Country
Count
Percentage
Spain
583
31.7
United Kingdom
452
24.5
Germany
124
6.7
Italy
103
5.6
France
94
5.1
Ireland
79
4.3
Belgium
66
3.6
Denmark
48
2.6
Switzerland
39
2.1
Netherlands
36
2
Ironman Lanzarote 2018 Predicted Kona Qualifiers by Country
Country
Percentage of Slots
Percentage of Field
Germany
17.5
6.7
Switzerland
15.0
2.1
Spain
15.0
31.7
Denmark
12.5
2.6
France
7.5
5.1
Belgium
5.0
3.6
Ireland
5.0
4.3
Netherlands
2.5
2.0
United Kingdom
2.5
24.5
Sweden
2.5
0.5
Russia
2.5
0.8
Austria
2.5
0.7
Czech Republic
2.5
0.4
Italy
2.5
5.6
Portugal
2.5
0.8
Poland
2.5
1.3

Lanzarote always draws a wide ranging field – Spain, the UK and Germany tend to be at the top by numbers. Slots are spread around Europe, with the biggest share going to Germany.

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

When we look at specific times and places across the last decade of this race there’s a lot more variation in the trends. It’s fair to say this year was not the fastest, but it wasn’t the slowest either. As is often the case, it’s further back in the field where we tend to see times fall back or level out, the front is more likely to keep pushing the pace close to previous bests.

Ironman Lanzarote 2018 Predicted Kona Qualification Times
Age Group
Slots
Winner
Average Kona Qualifier
Final Qualifier
M18-24
1
10:13:24
10:13:24
10:13:24
M25-29
2
09:53:06
09:59:09
10:05:12
M30-34
3
09:19:06
09:20:57
09:22:13
M35-39
4
09:25:56
09:31:58
09:36:45
M40-44
5
09:30:31
09:46:54
10:01:07
M45-49
5
10:11:47
10:22:11
10:33:35
M50-54
4
10:13:30
10:36:04
10:47:26
M55-59
3
10:29:11
10:45:30
10:56:48
M60-64
1
11:18:39
11:18:39
11:18:39
M65-69
1
11:58:03
11:58:03
11:58:03
M70-74
1
13:05:44
13:05:44
13:05:44
F18-24
1
10:36:11
10:36:11
10:36:11
F25-29
1
11:24:24
11:24:24
11:24:24
F30-34
1
09:54:29
09:54:29
09:54:29
F35-39
1
10:54:39
10:54:39
10:54:39
F40-44
2
10:56:22
11:05:14
11:14:07
F45-49
1
11:26:34
11:26:34
11:26:34
F50-54
1
11:27:47
11:27:47
11:27:47
F55-59
1
13:12:43
13:12:43
13:12:43
F65-69
1
15:55:31
15:55:31
15:55:31

I’ve calculated the likely allocation of Kona slots based on starting numbers and from that, the automatic qualification times each age group. Final numbers may have varied and roll down would impact qualifying times. You can find more information on qualifying times on my Kona qualification page.

Top Twenty Male Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Lanzarote 2018
Top Twenty Female Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Lanzarote 2018

Again we see a lot of variation among the age groups when looking at top twenty time. Some divisions faster than average, some slower. Generally not the fastest, or slowest set of times, but there are exceptions – the top ten times for M30-34 were particularly fast as an example. On balance the overall picture is that the front of race wasn’t too different to usual, but Lanza has shown quite a range of performances over the last 10 years.

You can access a spreadsheet of the full results from Ironman Lanzarote 2018 on my Google Drive.

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