IM Germany

Male Race Participants

Female Race Participants

(Update July 11th: Added DNFs, comments on the Race Conditions and Kona Qualifying Implications.)

Race Conditions

The main course relevant discussion before the start was the shortened bike course (officially 177k because construction made a section at the far end impossible to use) and how much that would affect the times. Based on the data analysis, the overall times were not affected too much compared to last year, but the bike was considerably faster (by roughly 8 minutes, so indicating the course was closer to 5k short) and we have some super-fast bike splits: Both Sebi Kienle’s 4:02 and Sarah Crowley’s 4:40 would be new bike course records, but with the shortened bike course they won’t really count. (Adding in the eight minutes difference to last year they aren’t faster than the old records, 4:08 by Jan Frodeno and 4:44 by Natascha Badmann.) Similarly, both Sarah’s and Sebi’s overall times were faster than the existing course records from 2015 by Daniela Ryf and Jan.

The run was a bit slower than last year, but that was a fast year for Frankfurt. (Last year was relatively cold with some rain, while this year was sunny and hot.) We still saw a 2:40 run by Patrik Nilsson (I will count that as a new run course record), but no sub-3 hour runs on the female side.

Male Race Results

Female Race Results

Kona Qualifying Implications

With the “big points” in Frankfurt (and a number of athletes just needing a finish to qualify), there is a long list of athletes securing their Kona slots:

• The top male Germans validated their slots by finishing at the front in Frankfurt: Sebastian Kienle secured his AQ slot as a previous champion by winning (and not letting anyone else get an AQ slot), while Andi Böcherer (second) and Patrick Lange (sixth) already had enough points for a slot from their great Kona races. On the female side an eight place was enough for Anja Beranek.
• Sarah Crowley secured another AQ slot – nonetheless affecting the cutoff as all of the other athletes with a lot of points need a points slot.
• The other top male finishers from Frankfurt also scored enough points to be safe: Patrik Nilsson (third), Ivan Tutukin (fifth), Marko Albert (seventh) and James Cunnama (fourth) can plan for October.
• Giulio Molinari (ninth in Frankfurt) is now in the “Close” category, but there are still a number of athletes than can leap in front of him in the remaining races.
• As on the men’s side the top female finishers from Frankfurt are now safe for a July slot: Michi Herlbauer (fifth), Liz Lyles (fourth), Lucy Charles (second), Alexandra Tondeur (third), Sonja Tajsich (sixth) and Dimity-Lee Duke (seventh).

The final Regional Championship race is coming up, known either as the Ironman European Championships, IM Germany or IM Frankfurt. It is the last race with “big points” for Kona. Most of the top seeds only need to “validate” their slots after a good Kona result, but a lot of athletes have raced earlier in the season but without the result they were looking for, so most of the field is hoping for a lot of points to be able to qualify for Kona.

Previous Winners

Last Year’s TOP 3

Male Race Results

Female Race Results

Course Records

Course Rating

The Course Rating for IM Germany is 15:28.

Race Adjustments for IM Germany

KPR points and Prize Money

IM Germany is a P-4000 race. It has a total prize purse of 150.000 US$.

Estimated Time Plan

The following table shows the time plan for the race start and the estimated times for the first athlete in the transition zones or across the finish line. The estimates are based on the start time and my time estimates, these times can change based on how fast or slow the race ends up:

Frankfurt is on Central European Summer Time, 2 hours ahead of UTC. Here are the conversions to a few other time zones:

• + 8 hours: Sydney (AEST), race starts at 14:30
• – 1 hour: United Kingdom (BST), race starts at 5:30
• – 6 hours: US East Coast (EDT), race starts at 12:30am
• – 9 hours: US West Coast (PDT), race starts at 9:30pm on Saturday

German TV will cover the race and will show it on hr3 (available in Germany and adjacent countries). Ironman is going to pick up the pictures and will add their own commentary. The IMLive stream will be available worldwide through Ironman.com.

Male Race Participants

The strength of the field is 20% of a typical Kona field.

Note:Athletes with a ‘*’ are also registered for another race within 8 days.

Female Race Participants

The strength of the field is 31% of a typical Kona field.

Note:Athletes with a ‘*’ are also registered for another race within 8 days.

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

• Sebastian Kienle: 60% (1-1)
• Andi Boecherer: 22% (4-1)
• Patrik Nilsson: 15% (6-1)

Female Race Participants

• Anja Beranek: 30% (2-1)
• Lucy Charles: 19% (4-1)
• Corinne Abraham: 18% (4-1)
• Elizabeth Lyles: 12% (7-1)
• Sarah Crowley: 9% (11-1)
• Diana Riesler: 7% (13-1)

Kona Qualifying Situation

As IM Germany is a Regional Championship and there are Automatic Qualifier spots for the winners, every participant has a chance to qualify for Kona. Also the P-4000 race has a lot of KPR points so there are a lot of athletes that should be able to qualify even without winning the race. Here are the minimum finishes to get close to the cutoffs for most of the participants.

Male Race Participants

The male cutoff for July is projected to be around 3.500 points. With 3.780 Thiago Vinhal is already in a good position to qualify, I’d be surprised to see him racing.

• Just finish to validate: Sebastian Kienle, Andi Böcherer, Patrick Lange
• 10th or better (at least 685 points): Marko Albert
• 8th (1070 points) or better: Cyril Viennot, Daniil Sapunov, Mark Bowstead
• 6th (1670 points) or better: Ivan Tutukin, Giulio Molinari, Patrik Nilsson, Nick Baldwin, Carlos Diaz, Michael Raelert
• 5th (2090 points) or better: James Cunnama, Cameron Wurf, Markus Fachbach, Philip Graves, Jeff Symonds

Female Race Participants

The female cutoff is likely to be around 4.300 points. Sarah Crowley (winner of IM Cairns) is already safe for Kona, but she indicated that she wants to try the “double” and see how she handles racing two Ironman so close together.

• Just finish to validate: Anja Beranek
• 12th (385 points) or better: Michi Herlbauer (though she’s likely racing IM Austria a week before)
• 11th (515 points) or better: Liz Lyles
• 10th (685 points) or better: Dimity-Lee Duke
• 8th (1070 points) or better: Katharina Grohmann, Sonja Tajsich
• 7th (1335 points) or better: Diana Riesler
• 6th (1670 points) or better: Corinne Abraham
• 5th (2090 points) or better: Lisi Gruber, Alexandra Tondeur, Pamela Tastets, Shiao-Yu Li
• 4th (2455 points) or better: Katja Konschak, Lucy Charles, Magali Tisseyre

The “European Championships” is the last of the five Regional Championships. It is the last chance for athletes to “score big points” for Kona, so the field is usually very deep. You can also expect quite a few changes in the final weeks, as a lot of athletes enter “just in case” or join the field as a last minute decision.

Update June 7th: Added Elisabeth Gruber, Rachel Joyce, Diana Riesler, Sonja Tajsich, and Pamela Tastets for the WPROs and Mark Bowstead, Ivan Caceres Lopez, Alberto Casadei, Michal Ivanco, Patrick Lange, Giulio Molinari, Marek Nemcik, Andreas Raelert, Youri Severin, Ivan Tutukin and Lukasz Wojt for the MPROs.

Update June 14th: Added Lucy Charles, Olga Kowalska, Andi Boecherer, James Cunnama, Markus Fachbach, David Jilek, Alfred Rahm, and Peter Seidel.

Male Race Participants

Female Race Participants