Ironman Maastricht-Limburg 2018: Age Group Results and Kona Qualification

Latest statistics for Ironman Maastricht-Limburg

Ironman Maastricht-Limburg is the first of the two European races I’ll be analysing this week. It’s a relatively new Ironman race, having been on the calendar for four years. It draws a small to mid-sized field of around 1,100 athletes for the standard allocation of 40 Kona slots. Results from Maastricht tend to trend around the average for European races.

Distribution of Finisher Splits at Ironman Maastricht-Limburg 2018 Compared with 2015-2017

The most obvious feature of this year’s race is a much slower swim – there’s a big shift in age group times across the board with few making it under the hour. After the tough start the race followed with a faster bike, trending marginally quicker than the previous years of results. It wrapped up with a run that didn’t trend too far from the historical data. Overall the race trends slightly slower at the median, but is largely comparable further up front.

DNS and DNF Rates at Ironman Maastricht-Limburg
Year
Listed Athletes
Swim Finish
Swim DNS/DNF
Bike Finish
Bike DNF
Run Finish
Run DNF
Overall DNS/DNF
2015
896
811
9.5%
784
3.3%
710
9.4%
20.6%
2016
1828
1664
9%
1607
3.4%
1528
4.9%
16.4%
2017
1061
1049
1.1%
1026
2.2%
991
3.4%
6.6%
2018
1111
1102
0.8%
1064
3.4%
1011
5%
9%

Allowing for the fact that the first two years of results combine DNS and DNF numbers this year’s race is typical for the course. The inaugural year had a higher DNF rate thanks to its run, other than that the last 3 years have trended closely for drop out rates.

Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Maastricht-Limburg 2018
Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Maastricht-Limburg 2015-2017

The median trends are similar to the distributions. A significantly slower swim this year, generally faster bike splits and a more varied set of run medians.

Top 10 Nationalities at Ironman Maastricht-Limburg
Country
Count
Percentage
Netherlands
343
28.6
Germany
228
19
Belgium
182
15.2
United Kingdom
152
12.7
France
76
6.3
Spain
32
2.7
Italy
29
2.4
United States
25
2.1
Luxembourg
18
1.5
Switzerland
15
1.3
Ironman Maastricht-Limburg 2018 Predicted Kona Qualifiers by Country
Country
Percentage of Slots
Percentage of Field
Germany
35.0
19.0
Netherlands
35.0
28.6
Belgium
15.0
15.2
United Kingdom
5.0
12.7
Switzerland
2.5
1.3
France
2.5
6.3

A broad range of mostly European nationalities at this race, with the Germans taking a big share of the Kona slots fo their numbers.

Changes in Male Finishing Times by Position at Ironman Maastricht-Limburg
Changes in Female Finishing Times by Position at Ironman Maastricht-Limburg

After a slow start in its first year results have trended quite consistently on this course. There’s variation over age groups and placings, but for the most part this year doesn’t differ too much from the last.

Ironman Maastricht-Limburg 2018 Predicted Kona Qualification Times
Age Group
Slots
Winner
Average Kona Qualifier
Final Qualifier
M18-24
2
10:04:12
10:17:01
10:29:50
M25-29
2
09:14:17
09:15:37
09:16:57
M30-34
3
08:55:44
09:01:34
09:05:17
M35-39
4
09:12:04
09:21:01
09:28:19
M40-44
4
09:25:53
09:35:51
09:41:37
M45-49
4
08:58:06
09:24:30
09:41:01
M50-54
3
09:57:58
10:04:30
10:11:34
M55-59
2
10:15:53
10:16:49
10:17:46
M60-64
1
10:33:14
10:33:14
10:33:14
M65-69
1
12:51:58
12:51:58
12:51:58
F18-24
1
11:34:36
11:34:36
11:34:36
F25-29
1
10:30:27
10:30:27
10:30:27
F30-34
2
09:47:19
10:04:31
10:21:43
F35-39
1
10:11:47
10:11:47
10:11:47
F40-44
2
10:45:33
10:45:56
10:46:20
F45-49
1
11:14:50
11:14:50
11:14:50
F50-54
1
11:50:44
11:50:44
11:50:44
F55-59
1
11:28:19
11:28:19
11:28:19
F60-64
1
14:43:05
14:43:05
14:43:05
F65-69
1
15:26:37
15:26:37
15:26:37

Based on the start list for Ironman Maastricht-Limburg I’ve estimated the allocation of Kona slots and what that means for automatic qualifying times in each age group. Final numbers may vary and roll down will influence the final qualifier’s time. As always, you can compare this with other races on my Kona qualification page.

Top Twenty Male Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Maastricht-Limburg 2018
Top Twenty Female Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Maastricht-Limburg 2018

With specific exceptions the top twenty in each age group mostly tried close to the average for the course. Some a bit slower, some a bit faster, or in the case of M30-34 a lot faster. The overall picture is of a set of race results not too dissimilar to previous years on the course.

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

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