Ironman Hamburg 2018: Age Group Results and Kona Qualification

A look through age group results and Kona qualification at Ironman Hamburg 2018
Latest statistics for Ironman Hamburg

Ironman Hamburg is the final race analysis of the week. This is only the second year for Hamburg and unfortunately it fell victim to the hot summer with high algae levels cancelling the swim. The race went ahead in a duathlon format opening with a 6km run. Last minute alteration aside, Hamburg drew a field of around 2,000 athletes to compete for 40 age group Kona slots.

It’s taken a little more time to get hold of the full details of the results for this race, but I’ve extracted and merged them from the Ironman site and the results PDF they’ve provided. There’s a link to a spreadsheet at the end of this article. Obviously, it’s also more difficult to compare the results when the two events differ so much.

Distribution of Finisher Splits at Ironman Hamburg 2018
Distribution of Finisher Splits at Ironman Hamburg 2017

What we can say for certain is a 6Km run is a much faster start to an Ironman than a 3.8km swim. After that this year’s race saw significantly faster bike splits than in 2017 – a top 10% bike split last year was only top 25% this year. The bike looks to have been around 25 minutes faster at the median. On the other hand the marathon trended slower this year, although only by a matter of 5 minutes at the median. The quicker opening leg and large shift of bike splits produces much faster finish times overall.

I put a little time into looking at the data from the first run to see if I could show any impact on the race, haven’t produce anything of significance. You’ll probably be unsurprised to know that people ran a lot faster over the 6K than the marathon. I can’t say how much the faster bike splits or slower marathon splits are a consequence of opening with a short run instead of a swim though.

DNS and DNF Rates at Ironman Hamburg
Year
Listed Athletes
Swim Finish
Swim DNS/DNF
Bike Finish
Bike DNF
Run Finish
Run DNF
Overall DNS/DNF
2017
2135
2120
0.7%
2061
2.8%
1992
3.3%
6.7%
2018
2091
1971
5.7%
1971
1972
5.7%

Unfortunately the results as provided do not clearly indicate where athletes dropped out of the race (i.e. no times are given if an athlete DNFed). So I can only comment on the overall level of DNF at this race which was slightly lower than in 2017.

Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Hamburg 2018
Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Hamburg 2017

Again, it’s difficult to compare the medians for each age group other than to note the much faster bike medians and slower marathon medians this year.

Top 10 Nationalities at Ironman Hamburg
Country
Count
Percentage
Germany
1206
51.5
United Kingdom
168
7.2
Israel
133
5.7
Spain
80
3.4
Denmark
72
3.1
France
58
2.5
Italy
53
2.3
Belgium
51
2.2
Austria
48
2
Poland
43
1.8
Ironman Hamburg 2018 Predicted Kona Qualifiers by Country
Country
Percentage of Slots
Percentage of Field
Germany
70.0
51.5
Denmark
15.0
3.1
Netherlands
2.5
1.3
Bermuda
2.5
0.0
Slovenia
2.5
0.1
Czech Republic
2.5
0.8
United Kingdom
2.5
7.2
France
2.5
2.5

Hamburg drew a wide-ranging field of athlete, but kept most of the slots at home.

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

There’s little to really say here, the race alterations made for a much faster event and so we see much faster qualifying times across all age groups.

Ironman Hamburg 2018 Predicted Kona Qualification Times
Age Group
Slots
Winner
Average Kona Qualifier
Final Qualifier
M18-24
1
07:59:47
07:59:47
07:59:47
M25-29
2
07:47:01
07:54:53
08:02:46
M30-34
3
07:55:02
08:02:34
08:14:29
M35-39
4
07:55:35
08:03:41
08:11:51
M40-44
4
08:00:06
08:13:26
08:28:58
M45-49
4
08:17:47
08:28:36
08:36:29
M50-54
4
08:19:26
08:37:59
08:48:46
M55-59
2
09:18:26
09:24:03
09:29:41
M60-64
2
09:36:36
09:40:41
09:44:47
M65-69
1
10:49:40
10:49:40
10:49:40
M70-74
1
11:23:48
11:23:48
11:23:48
F18-24
1
09:47:27
09:47:27
09:47:27
F25-29
1
08:56:51
08:56:51
08:56:51
F30-34
1
08:59:44
08:59:44
08:59:44
F35-39
1
09:05:17
09:05:17
09:05:17
F40-44
2
09:21:44
09:30:19
09:38:54
F45-49
2
08:37:43
09:06:59
09:36:16
F50-54
1
09:14:02
09:14:02
09:14:02
F55-59
1
10:29:59
10:29:59
10:29:59
F60-64
1
11:16:17
11:16:17
11:16:17
F65-69
1
11:40:43
11:40:43
11:40:43

Finally, I’ve estimated the allocation of Kona slots and from that final qualifying times. Actual numbers may have varied and roll down would impact on final qualifying times. You can compare this with other races on my Kona qualification page.

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

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