Archive | IM Brasil

Course Conditions

As usual, Brasil was a quick course, and the winners were under 9 hours (Kirsty Jahn) and just over 8 hours (Jesper Svensson in his first IM). But compared to what is typical for Floripa, the course and times were slow this year. The adjustment for this year was 13:43 minutes, about 12 minutes slower than last year and well under the new course rating of 21:25. Both the bike and the run were slower on average than previously and no new course records were set.

Male Race Results

Before the race the Brasilien athletes seemed to be set for a home win – but from the start Jesper Svensson dominated the race. He posted the fastest swim and bike, and a solid 2:55 marathon was more than sufficient for the win. Igor Amorelli worked hard on the marathon to eat into Jesper’s lead, but just when it seemed that he might reduce the gap, Jesper was able to increase the pace again. Igor finished second, followed by his country man Thiago Vinhal.

Female Race Results

There were a lot more changes in the female race. Haley Chura was leading the race in the swim and for most of the bike. But Kirsty Jahn had the best bike split and was able to take the lead in the second half of the bike. An excellent 3:01 marathon allowed her to finish in sub-9 and with a solid margin. Second place went to Sarah Piampiano. As usual Sarah lost time in the swim to the rest of the field, but by T2 she had moved into fourth position, and was then able to run the race-best 2:58 marathon (her first sub-3). Bruna Mahn also had a good marathon, she was quickly able to overtake Haley Chura who ended up in fourth place.

Kona Qualifying Implications

Here are the category changes for Kona Pro Qualifying:

• Safe for a July slot: Sarah Piampiano, Igor Amorelli
• Bubble (around the projected cutoff): Kirsty Jahn 
• Close (but more points needed): Haley Chura, Thiago Vinhal, Jesper Svensson

Previous Winners

Last Year’s TOP 3

Here’s the link to the full results from IM Brasil 2017.

Male Race Results

Female Race Results

Course Records

Course Rating

The Course Rating for IM Brasil is 22:03.

Race Adjustments for IM Brasil

KPR points and Prize Money

IM Brasil is a P-2000 race. It has a total prize purse of 40.000 US$.

Male Race Participants

The strength of the field is 7% of a typical Kona field.

Female Race Participants

The strength of the field is 8% of a typical Kona field.

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

For the male side, it looks as if the home country can look forward to their first home win since 2014 .. it might even be a repeat win by Igor Amorelli:

• Igor Amorelli: 31% (2-1)
• Thiago Vinhal: 19% (4-1)
• Guilherme Manocchio: 18% (5-1)
• Reinaldo Colucci: 11% (8-1)
• Fabio Carvalho: 10% (9-1)
• Philipp Koutny: 8% (12-1)
• Anton Blokhin: 2% (56-1)
• Luis Henrique Ohde: 2% (64-1)

Female Race Participants

The US has a number of female winners at IM Brasil: Dede Griesbauer, Amanda Stevens and Liz Lyles – with this year’s field there are good chances for the next one:

• Sarah Piampiano: 53% (1-1)
• Haley Chura: 27% (3-1)
• Kirsty Jahn: 12% (7-1)
• Camilla Lindholm Borg: 5% (18-1)
• Pamela Tastets: 2% (59-1)

The last year’s IM Brasil was the Regional Championship for South America (i.e. a P-4000 race with a large prize purse and Automatic Qualifier slots for the winners), this year it’s back to a “normal” P-2000 race (and a reduced purse of $40.000).

Male Race Participants

Female Race Participants

Race Conditions

As usual, the winning times in Brasil have been very fast. But while the top three women have gone sub-9 (and and the next three were less than two minutes above 9 hours), only the male winner Tim Don went sub-8. But what a sub-8 time it was! Tim Don’s 7:40:23 is the second fastest time ever on the full Ironman distance.

Looking at the averages, this year’s race in Florianopolis (adjustment of 25:40) was a bit faster than typical (course rating of 22:03). This year both the swim and the run were quicker than normal. The bike was pretty normal – with the exception of Tim Don’s bike split of 4:06:56 (new bike course record, improving on Marino Vanhoenacker’s 4:11:23 from 2015). Of course Tim also posted a new overall course record, as did female winner Susie Cheetham. Susie’s 8:52:00 improved on Liz Lyles’ 8:54 from last year.

Male Race Results

The swim resulted in a pretty big group leaving T1, but as soon as Tim Don was on the bike, he took control of the race. He was putting four minutes into the rest of the field within 30k, the gap was 10 minutes after 90k and grew to more than 20 minutes in T2. It seems that being in the lead provides some extra power in Brazil (possibly from the lead moto?), we’ve seen a race similar development last year when Brent gapped the rest of the field on the bike. I don’t want to take away from Tim’s race (his run split proved he was the strongest on race day), but the way the race unfolded raises serious questions. Ironman needs to look into them and improve the fairness of the race for next year in order to provide an environment that is in line with Brasil’s Regional Championship status. After Tim’s massive bike split there was some doubt whether he might have overpriced, but he also posted the fast run of the day, winning the race with a gap of 25 minutes.

Second place went to Kyle Buckingham who was only in the second bigger bike group. He had the second best run and was able to overtake everyone but Tim, securing second place by just one minute. The next four spots went to Brazilians: Igor Amorelli had a very balanced race taking third place, Reinaldo Colucci was in the Top 3 for most of the day but ended up in fourth, while Thiago Vinhal and Luis Ohde had solid days to finish fifth and sixth.

Female Race Results

While Tim was leading the race pretty much from start to finish and building his lead all day, there were a lot more position changes in the female race. As expected Haley Chura was the T1 leader, after the swim there weren’t many athletes close to each other. Susie Cheetham was just two and a half minutes back, and it took even Susie 90k to make up the gap to Haley. Behind them there formed a larger group which was lead for a long time by Mareen Hufe, taking  a large number of females along to sub-5-hour bike splits. Mareen was able to break away from the others only in the last 30k of the bike, so in T2 she was three minutes behind Haley and Susie, having posted the fastest bike split of the day.

On the run Haley wasn’t quite ready to accept that Susie was the stronger runner, but in the end Susie’s 3:02 marathon proved to be too strong for Haley and the rest of the field. Susie worked hard in the last part  to be sure she’d go sub-9, she posted a new course record and won the race with a gap of more than five minutes. Behind her there were a few last minute changes: Second place went to Sonja Tajsich (running exactly the same split as Susie) who had the best run of women in the bike chase group. She was able to beat Haley (who finished third) by just one minute, Sonja and and Haley also went sub-9. Fourth place went to Gurutze Frades by 13 seconds over Linsey Corbin who had to sit out a bike penalty in T2. Linsey passed Mareen late on the run, Mareen ended up just 31 seconds behind Linsey in sixth place. The best marathon of the day – a 2:58 – was run by Kristin Moeller, but she had lost too much time on the bike to finish better than 11th.

Kona Qualifying Implications

Here’s the notable changes in Kona Qualifying on the male side (projected July cutoff 3.500 points):

• Automatic Qualifier: Tim Don
• Safe for a July slot: Kyle Buckingham (6.450), Igor Amorelli (3.933)
• On the Bubble (might be enough, but maybe not): Thiago Vinhal (3.725), Reinaldo Colucci (3.390)
• Close (but more points needed): Patrick Evoe (3.163)

On the female side (projected cutoff 4.300 points):

• Automatic Qualifier: Susie Cheetham
• Safe for a July slot: Mareen Hufe (5.020), Gurutze Frades (4.915), Linsey Corbin (4,725)
• On the Bubble (might be enough, but maybe not): Haley Chura (4.180)
• Close (but more points needed): Sonja Tajsich (3.400), Lisi Gruber (3.175)