Ironman Malaysia 2018: Age Group Results and Kona Qualification

Latest statistics for Ironman Malaysia

Ironman Malaysia was the first of the Ironman races over the weekend and the second Ill review. It’s a smaller race, with over 1,000 competitors, but comes with 50 Kona slots for the 2019 Ironman World Championship. Conditions make for a tough race and times are at the slow end for Ironman.

Distribution of Finisher Splits at Ironman Malaysia 2018 Compared with 2014-2017

This year’s race trends similarly to the previous 4 years of results. Splits are slightly slower on the run and so also slightly slower overall, but otherwise much the same. This year looks to be typical for the course.

DNS and DNF Rates at Ironman Malaysia
Year
Listed Athletes
Swim Finish
Swim DNS/DNF
Bike Finish
Bike DNF
Run Finish
Run DNF
Overall DNS/DNF
2014
1094
1068
2.4%
997
6.6%
915
8.2%
16.4%
2015
761
742
2.5%
677
8.8%
616
9%
18.9%
2016
944
938
0.6%
882
6%
825
6.5%
12.6%
2017
1021
1005
1.6%
955
5%
885
7.3%
13.3%
2018
1115
1105
0.9%
1042
5.7%
964
7.5%
13.5%

DNF rates are the highest of the last 3 years, but only marginally. Overall they’re consistent with previous years of racing.

Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Malaysia 2018
Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Malaysia 2014-2017

Given how closely the distributions match up to previous years the medians follow a similar trend.There’s little to pick apart from previous years and trends aren’t consistent over the age groups.

Top 10 Nationalities at Ironman Malaysia
Country
Count
Percentage
Malaysia
329
26.9
Japan
232
19
Singapore
68
5.6
Australia
58
4.8
Indonesia
48
3.9
Thailand
47
3.8
India
44
3.6
Philippines
43
3.5
China
35
2.9
United Kingdom
32
2.6
Ironman Malaysia 2018 Predicted Kona Qualifiers by Country
Country
Percentage of Slots
Percentage of Field
Japan
28.0
19.0
Australia
18.0
4.8
Germany
8.0
1.9
United Kingdom
6.0
2.6
Spain
4.0
1.3
United States
4.0
1.9
Korea
4.0
1.6
Netherlands
2.0
0.9
South Africa
2.0
0.5
Italy
2.0
0.3
Papua New Guinea
2.0
0.1
Malaysia
2.0
26.9
Switzerland
2.0
0.8
Philippines
2.0
3.5
Slovakia
2.0
0.2
Finland
2.0
0.1
Venezuela
2.0
0.1
Belgium
2.0
0.4
France
2.0
2.1
Singapore
2.0
5.6
Luxembourg
2.0
0.2

While the majority of athletes racing in Malaysia come from the Asia-Pacific region, the Kona slot positions are spread across a very broad range of nationalities.

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

Tracking times for positions in different age groups shows quite a bit of variation over the 5 years of data. This is more pronounce further back in each age group and times are more stable at the front.

Ironman Malaysia 2018 Predicted Kona Qualification Times
Age Group
Slots
Winner
Average Kona Qualifier
Final Qualifier
M18-24
1
10:50:16
10:50:16
10:50:16
M25-29
2
09:56:27
10:06:25
10:16:24
M30-34
5
09:24:41
09:40:06
09:49:27
M35-39
8
09:25:14
09:41:55
09:55:40
M40-44
8
09:27:27
10:07:22
10:37:57
M45-49
6
09:56:22
10:36:24
11:19:10
M50-54
4
10:20:19
10:36:07
10:47:49
M55-59
2
10:48:18
10:49:05
10:49:53
M60-64
1
12:56:52
12:56:52
12:56:52
M65-69
1
13:59:22
13:59:22
13:59:22
M70-74
1
14:45:43
14:45:43
14:45:43
F18-24
1
12:38:41
12:38:41
12:38:41
F25-29
1
12:19:16
12:19:16
12:19:16
F30-34
1
11:19:06
11:19:06
11:19:06
F35-39
1
10:34:21
10:34:21
10:34:21
F40-44
2
11:07:12
11:10:46
11:14:20
F45-49
1
12:07:41
12:07:41
12:07:41
F50-54
1
11:48:31
11:48:31
11:48:31
F55-59
1
12:04:36
12:04:36
12:04:36
F60-64
1
13:37:14
13:37:14
13:37:14
F65-69
1
16:15:37
16:15:37
16:15:37

Based on the start numbers I’ve calculated the Kona slot allocation used in Malaysia. While I’ve not seen official numbers I have used a new version of the allocation method that appears to match other races. Exact numbers may vary and roll down will affect times. You can compare with other races on my Kona qualification page.

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

There’s quite a lot of variation in top twenty times across the age groups. Many trend close to the averages, with a few coming in slower and some coming in faster than average. There’s no clear pattern across the age groups, although qualification times tend to be average or faster.

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

Latest statistics for Ironman Malaysia

Kona Qualification

Compare qualification times across the Ironman Calendar.

Kona Consultancy

Individual race analysis and guidance for Kona qualification.

Support the Stats

Support the continued development of these stats.

Comments