IM South Africa

Course Conditions

This year’s race in Port Elizabeth started with a shortened swim, apparently the conditions were unsafe on parts of the course, especially for the weaker agegroupers. (Ironman South Africa is a normally single large loop swim.) I wasn’t on site so I can’t have an informed opinion on whether it would have been possible to have a full swim at least for the Pros. It’ll be interesting to hear comments from the leading swimmers on that. The official swim distance was 1.6k, and the times seem very slow for that – probably a result of the hard conditions. Even if the swim were half the normal distance, the times would still be slow. (Josh swam just under 25 minutes so that would have been 50 minutes – he was seeded to swim under 48 minutes in Port Elizabeth.)

Even though the bike course has changed significantly to previous years, the times were comparable to earlier years. The run was very fast, it was roughly five minutes quicker than in earlier years. This might be influenced by the shortened swim, but in all likelihood the course was a bit short. We’ll have to wait a bit for GPS tracks to be posted in the next few days. (It seems that the run was about 1k short, corresponding to roughly 4 minutes of run time.)

Of course the shortened swim invalidates all time comparisons to other years or races. Nonetheless I have calculated how the athletes times stacked up to what could have been expected from them, resulting in the “Diff to expected” columns and the coloring of the numbers (green=faster than expected, red = slower than expected). The background colors show the fastest athletes in each of the legs.

Male Race Results

Once again, Josh Amberger was leading after the swim, but with the shortened course he only had 30 seconds on the field and was quickly caught by a large group. Andreas Dreitz needed the first of two bike loops to bridge up to the lead group, but once he did the group got smaller and smaller. In the final 20k of the bike Ben Hoffman built a gap of 90 seconds to a small group of four athletes.

Once on the run, Ben was extending his lead bit by bit – in the end he ran a 2:39 marathon and won by almost six minutes over Nils Frommhold who was the best runner of the chase group. Third and fourth place went to Michael Weiss and Eneko Llanos who caught most of the chase group with solid marathons. As they were already qualified, the next two spots were also Kona qualifying places, these went to Maurice Clavel and Andreas Dreitz. Josh Amberger ran a solid sub-3 marathon but that was only good enough for seventh place, just short of a Kona slot.

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to exp.	Prize Money
1	Ben Hoffman	USA	00:26:03	04:24:24	02:39:17	07:34:19	-13:02	US$ 30,000
2	Nils Frommhold	GER	00:25:48	04:26:23	02:43:43	07:40:12	-07:07	US$ 15,000
3	Michael Weiss	AUT	00:30:05	04:24:18	02:43:41	07:42:35	-03:06	US$ 8,000
4	Eneko Llanos	ESP	00:25:56	04:28:24	02:45:57	07:44:59	-14:23	US$ 6,500
5	Maurice Clavel	GER	00:25:54	04:26:26	02:49:03	07:45:29	-07:14	US$ 5,000
6	Andreas Dreitz	GER	00:26:20	04:25:23	02:49:01	07:45:38	-06:36	US$ 3,500
7	Josh Amberger	AUS	00:24:59	04:27:00	02:56:00	07:52:19	-09:50	US$ 2,500
8	Matt Trautman	ZAF	00:27:17	04:33:56	02:49:00	07:54:22	-05:17	US$ 2,000
9	Bart Aernouts	BEL	00:28:36	04:37:28	02:46:01	07:56:20	15:11	US$ 1,500
10	Giulio Molinari	ITA	00:25:42	04:29:12	03:02:22	08:02:13	00:18	US$ 1,000
11	David McNamee	GBR	00:26:00	04:52:13	02:41:24	08:04:47	18:26
12	Samuel Huerzeler	SUI	00:28:32	04:43:12	02:51:52	08:08:50	03:30
13	Gustavo Rodriguez Iglesias	ESP	00:28:30	04:35:19	03:01:31	08:10:52	02:59
14	Sebastian Norberg	SWE	00:30:09	04:42:38	02:53:40	08:11:00	-08:55
15	James Cunnama	ZAF	00:28:16	04:36:56	03:03:05	08:12:26	25:14
16	Karl-Johan Danielsson	SWE	00:26:54	04:43:46	03:04:35	08:20:04	-09:53
17	Reece Barclay	GBR	00:25:51	04:55:46	02:53:49	08:20:29	08:37
18	Victor Arroyo Bugallo	ESP	00:30:07	04:52:54	02:52:34	08:20:45	06:51
19	Paul Ruttmann	AUT	00:29:37	04:46:25	03:14:15	08:35:27	n/a
20	Vinicius Canhedo	BRA	00:29:38	04:57:38	03:08:18	08:41:16	02:43
21	Gerhard De Bruin	ZAF	00:30:20	05:10:08	03:01:46	08:47:44	00:34
22	Eneko Elosegui	ESP	00:31:04	05:09:04	03:08:24	08:55:23	01:20
	Tim Van Berkel	AUS	00:25:53	04:44:48		DNF
	Tim Don	GBR	00:25:32			DNF
	Kyle Buckingham	ZAF	00:25:41			DNF
	Patrik Nilsson	SWE	00:25:56			DNF
	Alessandro Degasperi	ITA	00:26:07			DNF
	Markus Thomschke	GER	00:28:28			DNF

Female Race Results

When Lucy Charles-Barclay exited the swim, she was in the lead, but Lauren Brandon had been able to stay on her feet. They stayed in the lead for the first half of the bike, until German Anja Ippach had closed her four minute gap after the swim. Anja continued to ride strong in the second half of the bike and started the run with a three minute lead over Lucy and Lauren. By then the rest of the field was more than fifteen minutes back. Once on the run it was obvious that Lucy was the strongest runner of the three leading ladies, and towards the end of the first of four run loops she was able to take the lead. By then Gurutze Frades and Annah Watkinson were starting to close the gap to the front, in the end they were able to run fantastic 2:52 and 2:55 marathons and stormed onto the podium, also snagging the two available Kona slots on the female side. Lauren Brandon was able to post a new run PR, but that was only good for fourth, while Anja Ippach struggled towards the end and fell back into fifth place.

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to exp.	Prize Money
1	Lucy Charles-Barclay	GBR	00:25:20	05:05:46	02:59:32	08:35:31	03:20	US$ 30,000
2	Gurutze Frades Larralde	ESP	00:32:59	05:10:07	02:52:40	08:40:47	-17:33	US$ 15,000
3	Annah Watkinson	ZAF	00:30:44	05:12:17	02:55:02	08:43:18	-21:13	US$ 8,000
4	Lauren Brandon	USA	00:25:28	05:05:41	03:17:54	08:53:35	-10:05	US$ 6,500
5	Anja Ippach	GER	00:29:39	04:58:09	03:24:38	08:57:10	06:20	US$ 5,000
6	Tessa Kortekaas	NED	00:34:08	05:18:54	03:11:52	09:10:01	n/a	US$ 3,500
7	Antonina Reznikov	ISR	00:39:35	05:22:09	03:11:23	09:19:25	-20:07	US$ 2,500
8	Federica De Nicola	ITA	00:32:58	05:23:42	03:20:22	09:23:10	15:29	US$ 2,000
9	Ashley Paulson	USA	00:40:09	05:31:39	03:06:48	09:24:11	05:35	US$ 1,500
10	Mareen Hufe	GER	00:32:56	05:17:11	03:31:59	09:27:54	45:29	US$ 1,000
	Angela Lindberg	GER	00:36:59	06:14:54		DNF
	Natalie Seymour	GBR	00:32:07			DNF

Kona Qualifying

The following athletes were able to validate their Automatic Qualifier slots by finishing IM South Africa:

• Lucy Charles-Barclay
• Bart Aernouts
• David McNamee

As Michael Weiss and Eneko Llanos were already qualified before the race, these athletes received a Kona slot (pending official results and acceptance at Monday’s award ceremony):

• Gurutze Frades
• Annah Watkinson
• Ben Hoffman
• Nils Frommhold
• Maurice Clavel
• Andreas Dreitz

Updates:

• April 6th: The following athletes have not signed in for the Pro Meeting and are unlikely to race on Sunday: Peru Alfaro and Philipp Lamberty. Johann Ackerman, Marcus Liebelt, Urs Müller and Angela Naeth haven’t even been on the sign-in sheets, so they probably have withdrawn earlier. I have crossed off these athletes in the tables below.
  This would make it 30 male and 12 female Pros racing, resulting in four male slots and 2 female slots. 
• March 27th: Jan van Berkel announced that he has pinched a nerve and has to cancel his trip to South Africa. Speedy recovery!
• March 28th: Evert Scheltinga also won’t be racing.

Previous Winners

Year	Male Winner	Time	Female Winner	Time
2006	Gerrit Schellens (BEL)	08:36:06	Natascha Badmann (SUI)	09:46:38
2007	Gerrit Schellens (BEL)	08:33:05	Natascha Badmann (SUI)	09:22:01
2008	Stephen Bayliss (GBR)	08:18:23	Bella Bayliss (GBR)	09:27:48
2009	Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL)	08:17:32	Lucie Zelenkova (CZE)	09:16:32
2010	Raynard Tissink (ZAF)	08:23:28	Sonja Tajsich (GER)	09:16:55
2011	Raynard Tissink (ZAF)	08:05:36	Chrissie Wellington (GBR)	08:33:56
2012	Clemente Alonso McKernan (ESP)	08:34:45	Natascha Badmann (SUI)	09:47:10
2013	Ronnie Schildknecht (SUI)	08:11:24	Jessie Donavan (USA)	09:10:58
2014	Nils Frommhold (GER)	08:26:07	Simone Braendli (SUI)	09:31:54
2015	Frederik Van Lierde (BEL)	08:16:35	Jodie Cunnama (GBR)	09:26:56
2016	Ben Hoffman (USA)	08:12:37	Kaisa Sali (FIN)	09:06:50
2017	Ben Hoffman (USA)	07:58:40	Daniela Ryf (SUI)	08:47:02
2018	Kyle Buckingham (ZAF)	08:13:00	Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR)	08:56:06

Last Race Results

Here’s the link to the analysis of last year’s results.

Male Top 3

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Kyle Buckingham	ZAF	00:48:22	04:31:51	02:48:42	08:13:00
2	Josh Amberger	AUS	00:46:24	04:31:35	02:53:43	08:16:01
3	Maurice Clavel	GER	00:48:21	04:31:56	02:54:01	08:18:51

Female Top 3

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Lucy Charles-Barclay	GBR	00:47:32	04:57:21	03:05:45	08:56:06
2	Susie Cheetham	GBR	00:55:48	05:01:54	03:00:47	09:02:58
3	Linsey Corbin	USA	00:55:48	05:08:14	02:58:16	09:07:10

Course Records

There have been a couple of course changes over the years, especially on the bike. Nonetheless, the following are the fastest times in South Africa:

Leg	Gender	Record	Athlete	Date
Total	overall	07:58:40	Ben Hoffman	2017-04-02
Swim	overall	00:45:22	Anton Storm	2009-04-05
Bike	overall	04:19:41	Raynard Tissink	2011-04-10
Run	overall	02:42:52	Ben Hoffman	2017-04-02
Total	female	08:33:56	Chrissie Wellington	2011-04-10
Swim	female	00:47:32	Lucy Charles-Barclay	2018-04-15
Bike	female	04:45:23	Chrissie Wellington	2011-04-10
Run	female	02:52:54	Chrissie Wellington	2011-04-10

Course Rating

The Course Rating for IM South Africa is 03:26.

Race Adjustments for IM South Africa

Year	Adjustment	Swim Adj.	Bike Adj.	Run Adj.	# of Finishers	Rating	Swim Rating	Bike Rating	Run Rating
2006	01:34	-03:56	02:49	02:41	28	01:34	-03:56	02:49	02:41
2007	01:16	-08:10	06:34	02:52	33	01:25	-06:03	04:41	02:47
2008	15:32	01:07	10:31	03:54	36	06:07	-03:41	06:38	03:10
2009	17:18	02:43	13:35	01:01	28	08:55	-02:05	08:23	02:37
2010	09:38	-00:12	08:23	01:27	34	09:03	-01:42	08:23	02:23
2011	15:30	00:07	13:51	01:33	36	10:08	-01:24	09:17	02:15
2012	-11:58	-08:14	-06:39	02:54	28	06:58	-02:23	07:01	02:21
2013	06:23	-01:59	07:37	00:45	36 of 44	06:54	-02:20	07:05	02:09
2014	-12:12	-01:03	-08:23	-02:47	29 of 40	04:46	-02:11	05:22	01:36
2015	-13:44	-00:59	-11:06	-01:39	49 of 61	02:55	-02:04	03:44	01:16
2016	03:31	-03:11	06:40	00:03	42 of 53	02:59	-02:10	04:00	01:10
2017	08:21	-00:16	07:41	00:57	43 of 63	03:25	-02:01	04:18	01:09
2018	03:34	-00:07	01:35	02:06	35 of 47	03:26	-01:52	04:06	01:13

Kona slots and Prize Money

IM South Africa has 2m+2f +2u Pro Kona slot(s). Looking at the bib list, it is like that the female Pros will get two Kona slots, while the males will get four. (Final assignment is based on the number of Pros starting the race.) It has a total prize purse of 150.000 US$, paying 10 deep.

Estimated Time Plan and Race Coverage

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:

What	Est. Racetime	Est. Local Time
Male Pro Start		06:30
Female Pro Start		06:35
Age Group Start		06:45
First Male in T1	00:47:46	07:17
First Female in T1	00:49:08	07:24
First Male in T2	05:18:38	11:48
First Female in T2	05:47:29	12:22
Male Winner	08:06:50	14:36
Female Winner	08:53:29	15:28

Port Elizabeth is on South Africa Standard Time, 2 hours ahead of UTC. Here are the conversions to a few other time zones:

• +8 hours: Melbourne (AEST, DST ends on April 7th), race starts 2:30pm
• – 1 hour: United Kingdom (BST), race starts at 5:30am
• no difference: Central Europe (CEST), race starts at 6:30am
• – 6 hours: US East Coast (EDT), race starts at 12:30am
• – 9 hours: US West Coast (PDT), race starts at 9:30pm on Saturday

The race will be available on Ironman NOW through Facebook Watch.

Male Race Participants

The strength of the field is 74% of a typical Kona field.

#	Bib	Name	Nat	Expected	Rating	ESwim	EBike	ET2	ERun	Consistency	Overall
1	8	Nils Frommhold	GER	08:06:50	08:26:04	00:50:04	04:25:13	05:20:17	02:46:33	53% +0% -47% (11)	(32)
2	2	Ben Hoffman	USA	08:08:02	08:20:48	00:50:23	04:25:56	05:21:19	02:46:43	34% +37% -30% (21)	16
3	12	Patrik Nilsson	SWE	08:08:29	08:15:07	00:49:12	04:28:40	05:22:52	02:45:37	47% +20% -33% (11)	6
4	5	Bart Aernouts (AQ)	BEL	08:09:03	08:12:50	00:53:43	04:28:11	05:26:54	02:42:09	71% +24% -5% (14)	5
5	6	David McNamee (AQ)	GBR	08:10:22	08:15:28	00:49:40	04:30:54	05:25:34	02:44:48	41% +39% -21% (9)	7
6	10	James Cunnama	ZAF	08:15:26	08:23:38	00:50:32	04:27:03	05:22:34	02:52:52	53% +20% -27% (29)	27
7	15	Michael Weiss (KQ)	AUT	08:16:00	08:23:45	00:55:40	04:22:02	05:22:43	02:53:17	90% +2% -8% (24)	28
8	14	Andreas Dreitz	GER	08:16:41	08:21:34	00:51:22	04:22:16	05:18:38	02:58:03	70% +0% -30% (4)	20
9	11	Tim Van Berkel	AUS	08:17:52	08:21:27	00:49:57	04:34:01	05:28:58	02:48:54	89% +6% -5% (26)	19
10	7	Tim Don	GBR	08:19:19	08:28:54	00:49:48	04:24:50	05:19:37	02:59:42	19% +14% -67% (7)	43
11	1	Kyle Buckingham	ZAF	08:19:22	08:27:33	00:50:28	04:31:10	05:26:37	02:52:45	80% +7% -13% (17)	36
12	4	Maurice Clavel	GER	08:20:01	08:21:37	00:49:37	04:28:35	05:23:12	02:56:49	79% +0% -21% (4)	21
13	16	Jan van Berkel	SUI	08:20:01	08:25:40	00:50:27	04:33:41	05:29:08	02:50:53	69% +20% -10% (20)	30
14	3	Josh Amberger	AUS	08:21:31	08:35:16	00:47:46	04:28:28	05:21:14	03:00:17	60% +11% -29% (7)	62
15	19	Alessandro Degasperi	ITA	08:23:58	08:31:22	00:51:33	04:38:36	05:35:09	02:48:49	69% +0% -31% (16)	53
16	13	Eneko Llanos (KQ)	ESP	08:25:50	08:28:18	00:50:10	04:30:24	05:25:34	03:00:16	79% +0% -21% (36)	39
17	17	Giulio Molinari	ITA	08:26:20	08:30:43	00:50:05	04:31:51	05:26:57	02:59:23	84% +0% -16% (8)	50
18	35	Evert Scheltinga	NED	08:26:36	08:34:12	00:50:38	04:30:08	05:25:46	03:00:50	78% +0% -22% (8)	59
19	9	Matt Trautman (KQ)	ZAF	08:27:07	08:30:00	00:52:20	04:33:50	05:31:10	02:55:57	30% +34% -36% (8)	47
20	18	Johann Ackermann	GER	08:31:50	08:40:04	00:49:51	04:33:05	05:27:56	03:03:54	70% +0% -30% (13)	82
21	27	Samuel Huerzeler	SUI	08:33:45	08:42:11	00:54:28	04:39:08	05:38:37	02:55:08	79% +21% -0% (14)	89
22	33	Gustavo Rodriguez Iglesias	ESP	08:34:03	08:44:45	00:56:30	04:37:29	05:38:59	02:55:04	44% +34% -22% (6)	98
23	36	Markus Thomschke	GER	08:34:26	08:37:31	00:53:40	04:36:01	05:34:41	02:59:45	55% +17% -29% (21)	76
24	21	Peru Alfaro San Ildefonso	ESP	08:35:45	08:45:05	00:49:42	04:42:19	05:37:01	02:58:44	59% +0% -41% (5)	100
25	23	Reece Barclay	GBR	08:40:12	08:56:43	00:49:49	04:42:53	05:37:42	03:02:30	56% +0% -44% (2)	(141)
26	29	Markus Liebelt	GER	08:41:35	08:55:18	00:54:34	04:35:50	05:35:24	03:06:11	40% +0% -60% (5)	(137)
27	22	Victor Arroyo Bugallo	ESP	08:44:01	08:52:32	00:59:07	04:46:39	05:50:46	02:53:15	64% +0% -36% (3)	124
28	25	Karl-Johan Danielsson	SWE	08:51:18	09:05:28	00:53:16	04:38:20	05:36:36	03:14:42	41% +13% -46% (18)	168
29	31	Sebastian Norberg	SWE	08:54:10	09:03:58	00:56:28	04:42:50	05:44:18	03:09:52	41% +21% -38% (5)	165
30	30	Urs Mueller	SUI	09:00:55	09:10:52	00:54:36	04:47:54	05:47:30	03:13:25	66% +9% -25% (11)	182
31	24	Vinicius Canhedo	BRA	09:07:07	09:22:38	00:54:15	04:57:50	05:57:05	03:10:02	16% +31% -53% (5)	(216)
32	32	Jonas Oerarbaeck	SWE	09:10:06	09:22:51	01:02:00	04:57:27	06:04:28	03:05:38	63% +0% -37% (3)	(218)
33	20	Gerhard De Bruin	ZAF	09:14:04	09:26:31	00:56:09	04:52:50	05:53:59	03:20:05	84% +16% -0% (7)	224
34	26	Eneko Elosegui	ESP	09:26:26	09:34:16	01:02:41	04:55:21	06:03:02	03:23:24	82% +4% -14% (22)	239
35	28	Philippe Lamberty	LUX	10:12:58	10:34:01	00:55:36	04:54:34	05:55:09	04:17:49	n/a (1 IM Pro race)	(269)
	34	Paul Ruttmann	AUT	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	0% +0% -100% (2)	(n/a)
	37	Clinton Gravett	ZAF	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)

Female Race Participants

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

#	Bib	Name	Nat	Expected	Rating	ESwim	EBike	ET2	ERun	Consistency	Overall
1	40	Lucy Charles-Barclay (AQ)	GBR	08:53:29	09:00:49	00:49:08	04:53:21	05:47:29	03:06:00	48% +52% -0% (6)	2
2	52	Angela Naeth	CAN	09:14:45	09:25:27	01:01:16	04:53:37	05:59:53	03:14:52	3% +72% -25% (11)	33
3	43	Mareen Hufe (KQ)	GER	09:16:12	09:19:01	01:00:22	04:55:46	06:01:09	03:15:03	79% +17% -4% (29)	20
4	44	Anja Ippach	GER	09:20:21	09:29:34	00:53:53	04:58:20	05:57:13	03:23:08	52% +3% -45% (13)	(38)
5	42	Lauren Brandon	USA	09:27:21	09:38:17	00:49:48	05:04:24	05:59:12	03:28:09	39% +16% -46% (9)	49
6	41	Gurutze Frades Larralde	ESP	09:28:57	09:34:42	01:02:42	05:11:47	06:19:29	03:09:28	84% +9% -7% (13)	43
7	45	Annah Watkinson	ZAF	09:37:09	09:49:41	01:01:08	05:15:27	06:21:34	03:15:35	54% +0% -46% (8)	68
8	46	Federica De Nicola	ITA	09:42:28	09:50:08	01:02:27	05:09:19	06:16:46	03:25:42	78% +0% -22% (4)	71
9	49	Ashley Paulson	USA	09:58:05	10:08:27	01:15:11	05:28:13	06:48:23	03:09:42	66% +12% -23% (10)	94
10	48	Angela Lindberg	GER	10:19:05	10:42:54	01:04:56	05:37:01	06:46:57	03:32:08	30% +0% -70% (7)	(128)
11	50	Antonina Reznikov	ISR	10:21:53	10:41:38	01:13:28	05:31:22	06:49:50	03:32:03	n/a (1 IM Pro race)	(127)
	47	Tessa Kortekaas	NED	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	51	Natalie Seymour	GBR	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (1 IM Pro race)	(n/a)

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

• Bart Aernouts: 39% (2-1)
• Nils Frommhold: 20% (4-1)
• Ben Hoffman: 11% (8-1)
• David McNamee: 10% (9-1)
• James Cunnama: 6% (17-1)
• Patrik Nilsson: 5% (21-1)
• Tim Don: 3% (32-1)
• Michael Weiss: 2% (48-1)

Female Race Participants

• Lucy Charles-Barclay: 76% (1-1)
• Mareen Hufe: 13% (7-1)
• Angela Naeth: 5% (17-1)
• Anja Ippach: 2% (44-1)
• Gurutze Frades Larralde: 2% (61-1)

Update March 14th:

• WPRO additions: Federica De Nicola, Mareen Hufe, Ashley Paulson, and Antonina Reznikov
• MPRO additions: Peru Alfaro, Kyle Buckingham, James Cunnama, Karl-Johan Danielsson, Alessandro Degasperi, Tim Don, Andreas Dreitz, Eneko Elosegui, Ben Hoffman, Markus Liebelt, Eneko Llanos, David McNamee, Giulio Molinari, Sebastian Norberg, Jonas Oerarbaeck, Gustavo Rodriguez Iglesias, Evert Scheltinga, and Michael Weiss
• The following athletes are no longer on the latest start list: Daniel Brown, and Imanol Sagarzazu – I have just added a question mark to their name in the list below.

Kona Slots and Prize Money

IM South Africa has 2m+2f +2u Pro Kona slots. It has a total prize purse of 150.000 US$, paying 10 deep.

There are 36 men and 13 women on the latest list, this would mean that both unassigned slots go to the men. (The final assignment will be based on the number of Pros starting the race. ) With quite a few males already qualified or just needing to validate their AQ slots, the rolldown could go quite far.

Male Race Participants

Name	Nation
Johann Ackermann	GER
Bart Aernouts (AQ)	BEL
Peru Alfaro	ESP
Josh Amberger	AUS
Victor Arroyo Bugallo	ESP
Reece Barclay	GBR
Daniel Brown (?)	AUS
Kyle Buckingham	ZAF
Vinicius Canhedo	BRA
Maurice Clavel	GER
James Cunnama	ZAF
Karl-Johan Danielsson	SWE
Gerhard De Bruin	ZAF
Alessandro Degasperi	ITA
Tim Don	GBR
Andreas Dreitz	GER
Eneko Elosegui	ESP
Nils Frommhold	GER
Ben Hoffman	USA
Samuel Huerzeler	SUI
Philippe Lamberty	LUX
Markus Liebelt	GER
Eneko Llanos (KQ)	ESP
David McNamee (AQ)	GBR
Giulio Molinari	ITA
Urs Mueller	SUI
Patrik Nilsson	SWE
Sebastian Norberg	SWE
Jonas Oerarbaeck	SWE
Gustavo Rodriguez Iglesias	ESP
Paul Ruttmann	AUT
Imanol Sagarzazu (?)	ESP
Evert Scheltinga	NED
Markus Thomschke	GER
Matt Trautman (KQ)	ZAF
Jan van Berkel	SUI
Tim Van Berkel	AUS
Michael Weiss (KQ)	AUT

Female Race Participants

Name	Nation
Lauren Brandon	USA
Lucy Charles-Barclay (AQ)	GBR
Federica De Nicola	ITA
Gurutze Frades Larralde	ESP
Mareen Hufe (KQ)	GER
Anja Ippach	GER
Tessa Kortekaas	NED
Angela Lindberg	GER
Angela Naeth	CAN
Ashley Paulson	USA
Antonina Reznikov	ISR
Natalie Seymour	GBR
Annah Watkinson	ZAF

Race Conditions

The weather in Port Elizabeth was great, but the lack of wind did not create fast times. Overall, the adjustments were typical for IM South Africa: a slow Ocean swim, followed by “normal” bike and run conditions. 

Lucy Charles posted a new female swim course record (beating Lucy Zelenkova’s 2009 swim by 8 seconds). Camron Wurf was very close to setting a new bike course record, he missed Ray Tissink’s 2011 time by just 3 seconds!

Male Race Results

The swim and bike unfolded as expected: Josh Amberger was taking the lead in the swim, he was two minutes ahead of the rest of the field. But Cam Wurf wasn’t too far back and by 90k he had taken the lead, starting the run with a seven minute lead on Josh and about ten minutes to a larger group of stronger runners. That group included defending champion Ben Hoffman but he quickly had back issues and was forced to walk almost the complete marathon (still finishing in just over 12 hours, but adding an IM finish to his KPR points to be eligible for a Kona slot). 

Cameron Wurf has improved his run and he was holding on to his lead for almost three of the four run legs. By then South African Kyle Buckingham had methodically worked his way to the front, first running away from the others in his bike chase group, then overtaking Josh Amberger and eventually taking the lead. In the end, his solid 2:48 marathon was good enough for a three minute win over Josh Amberger who also ran well. Third place went to the young German Maurice Clavel who executed a smart race in the big bike group followed by a 2:54 marathon, edging out Cam Wurf for the podium.

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to exp.	Prize Money	KPR Points
1	Kyle Buckingham	ZAF	00:48:22	04:31:51	02:48:42	08:13:00	-15:39	US$ 30,000	4000
2	Josh Amberger	AUS	00:46:24	04:31:35	02:53:43	08:16:01	-16:10	US$ 15,000	3400
3	Maurice Clavel	GER	00:48:21	04:31:56	02:54:01	08:18:51	04:09	US$ 8,000	2890
4	Cameron Wurf	AUS	00:50:15	04:19:44	03:05:10	08:20:07	-08:34	US$ 6,500	2455
5	Ronnie Schildknecht	SUI	00:53:53	04:35:37	02:49:03	08:23:09	-01:33	US$ 5,000	2090
6	Jonathan Shearon	USA	00:53:56	04:35:48	02:49:15	08:23:57	-16:50	US$ 3,500	1670
7	Alessandro Degasperi	ITA	00:48:30	04:42:43	02:48:33	08:25:10	01:03	US$ 2,500	1335
8	Giulio Molinari	ITA	00:48:19	04:37:53	02:54:57	08:25:29	-02:48	US$ 2,000	1070
9	Philipp Koutny	SUI	00:50:44	04:40:33	02:50:35	08:26:18	-16:16	US$ 1,500	855
10	Eneko Llanos	ESP	00:48:28	04:31:48	03:07:07	08:31:56	06:21	US$ 1,000	685
11	Peru Alfaro	ESP	00:48:12	04:44:57	02:58:07	08:36:18	09:24		515
12	Michael Ruenz	GER	00:57:42	04:47:55	02:48:17	08:38:21	-04:53		385
13	Matt Trautman	ZAF	00:49:53	04:42:56	03:09:25	08:47:14	25:33		290
14	Sebastian Norberg	SWE	00:53:52	04:46:57	03:15:27	09:00:39	n/a		215
15	Alberto Casadei	ITA	00:48:20	05:03:44	03:07:54	09:05:18	29:30		160
16	Darby Thomas	FIN	01:00:55	04:47:19	03:14:22	09:07:29	15:23		120
17	Gerhard De Bruin	ZAF	00:53:44	04:51:41	03:22:03	09:11:47	-08:48		90
18	Bekim Christensen	DEN	01:05:56	04:46:32	03:28:53	09:27:13	08:48		70
19	Hans Muehlbauer	GER	00:55:31	05:22:21	03:11:41	09:34:55	15:18		50
20	Philippe Lamberty	LUX	00:53:49	04:56:48	04:16:20	10:11:19	n/a		40
21	Ben Hoffman	USA	00:49:17	04:30:57	06:42:00	12:06:48	3:53:55		25
	Evert Scheltinga	NED	00:48:14	04:41:29		DNF
	Pedro Gomes	POR	00:49:15	04:46:04		DNF
	Reece Barclay	GBR	00:48:21	04:50:00		DNF
	Alain Djouad-Guibert	MOR	01:05:48	05:26:27		DNF
	Markus Fachbach	GER	00:49:13			DNF
	Artem Parienko	RUS	00:51:29			DNF

Female Race Results

The female race was “The Lucy Show”: Lucy Charles posted the fastest swim and started the bike with a five minute lead. She was also riding well (the only female sub-5 bike split), by T2 she was eleven minutes ahead of Rachel McBride, twelve ahead of Susie Cheetham and 19 ahead of Linsey Corbin. All four leaders were running well, and even though Rachel fell back to fourth place, her 3:16 run was a new marathon PR for her. Linsey finished third with the best marathon in the field, her best marathon since 2014 season when she finished the fastest North American Ironman. Susie Cheetham set a new marathon PR, just missing the 3-hour mark but finishing a very solid second an continuing her streak of four podium finishes in Port Elizabeth in a row. But the undisputed winner by six minutes was Lucy, who also set a new marathon PR while winning her first Regional Championship and securing an Automatic Qualifier slot for Kona. 

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to exp.	Prize Money	KPR Points
1	Lucy Charles	GBR	00:47:32	04:57:21	03:05:45	08:56:06	-11:39	US$ 30,000	4000
2	Susie Cheetham	GBR	00:55:48	05:01:54	03:00:47	09:02:58	-07:31	US$ 15,000	3400
3	Linsey Corbin	USA	00:55:48	05:08:14	02:58:16	09:07:10	-09:12	US$ 8,000	2890
4	Rachel McBride	CAN	00:52:47	05:04:06	03:16:55	09:18:34	-13:50	US$ 6,500	2455
5	Manon Genet	FRA	00:59:43	05:06:05	03:11:21	09:21:59	-22:45	US$ 5,000	2090
6	Gurutze Frades Larralde	ESP	00:59:18	05:11:02	03:14:38	09:30:14	-06:34	US$ 3,500	1670
7	Katharina Grohmann	GER	01:10:06	05:13:17	03:06:53	09:35:07	-14:35	US$ 2,500	1335
8	Martina Kunz	SUI	01:02:04	05:16:01	03:13:27	09:36:40	-03:26	US$ 2,000	1070
9	Maja Stage Nielsen	DEN	00:58:06	05:17:11	03:16:59	09:37:21	18:57	US$ 1,500	855
10	Annah Watkinson	ZAF	00:59:17	05:20:44	03:12:15	09:38:30	05:54	US$ 1,000	685
11	Leslie DiMichele Miller	USA	00:59:54	05:27:53	03:12:17	09:45:19	00:39		515
12	Saleta Castro Nogueira	ESP	00:55:42	05:29:38	03:17:26	09:47:58	02:50		385
13	Corina Hengartner	SUI	01:04:25	05:38:38	03:09:36	09:58:59	06:31		290
14	Patricia Bueno Perez	ESP	01:06:41	05:55:17	04:03:38	11:12:58	26:03		215
	Charlotte Morel	FRA	00:52:58	05:14:11		DNF
	Emma Pallant	GBR	00:55:47	05:13:39		DNF
	Judith Corachan Vacquero	ESP	00:55:46	05:15:35		DNF
	Katja Konschak	GER	00:55:50	05:24:41		DNF
	Lina-Kristin Schink	GER	01:07:29	05:21:00		DNF
	Carolin Lehrieder	GER	00:55:48			DNF

Kona Qualifying Implications

This early in the season, a lot of athletes are looking to position themselves for an early Kona slot or at least a good path towards a slot. Here’s where the top finishers are currently placed.

Men

• Automatic Qualifier: Kyle Buckingham
• Safe for a July slot: Cameron Wurf, Maurice Clavel, Josh Amberger, Ben Hoffman
• On the Bubble: Jonathan Shearon (at 3.290 he will probably need more points)
• Close, but will need more points: Ronnie Schildknecht

Women

• Automatic Qualifier: Lucy Charles
• Safe for a July slot: Susie Cheetham, Linsey Corbin
• All others will still need a good number of points to get to the projected cutoff of 4.400 points, the best placed are Manon Genet (3.370 points), Maja Stage Nielsen (3.335) and Rachel McBride (3.295). 

Analysis of IM South Africa is supported by Neil Cooper. Neil lives in Northern Island but is going to race IM South Africa. While he’s in the country he will also attend his son’s wedding a few days after the race. All the best to Neil and to his son (and his son’s bride!) for the upcoming wedding.

Update March 31st: Michelle Vesterby won’t be racing South Africa, she plans to do IM Texas.

Update April 9th: Nikki Bartlett won’t be able to race, she crashed riding her bike shortly before leaving for South Africa. Quick recovery!

Update April 10th: James Cunnama tweeted that he’ll need more time to build his fitness and won’t be racing this Sunday.

Previous Winners

Year	Male Winner	Time	Female Winner	Time
2006	Gerrit Schellens (BEL)	08:36:06	Natascha Badmann (SUI)	09:46:38
2007	Gerrit Schellens (BEL)	08:33:05	Natascha Badmann (SUI)	09:22:01
2008	Stephen Bayliss (GBR)	08:18:23	Bella Bayliss (GBR)	09:27:48
2009	Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL)	08:17:32	Lucie Zelenkova (CZE)	09:16:32
2010	Raynard Tissink (ZAF)	08:23:28	Sonja Tajsich (GER)	09:16:55
2011	Raynard Tissink (ZAF)	08:05:36	Chrissie Wellington (GBR)	08:33:56
2012	Clemente Alonso McKernan (ESP)	08:34:45	Natascha Badmann (SUI)	09:47:10
2013	Ronnie Schildknecht (SUI)	08:11:24	Jessie Donavan (USA)	09:10:58
2014	Nils Frommhold (GER)	08:26:07	Simone Braendli (SUI)	09:31:54
2015	Frederik Van Lierde (BEL)	08:16:35	Jodie Cunnama (GBR)	09:26:56
2016	Ben Hoffman (USA)	08:12:37	Kaisa Sali (FIN)	09:06:50
2017	Ben Hoffman (USA)	07:58:40	Daniela Ryf (SUI)	08:47:02

Last Year’s TOP 3

Here’s the link to last year’s full results and analysis.

Male Race Results

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Ben Hoffman	USA	00:49:14	04:22:33	02:42:52	07:58:40
2	Nils Frommhold	GER	00:49:05	04:22:31	02:43:43	07:59:30
3	David McNamee	GBR	00:49:09	04:28:45	02:45:36	08:07:31

Female Race Results

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Daniela Ryf	SUI	00:53:48	04:50:50	02:57:27	08:47:02
2	Kaisa Sali	FIN	00:55:29	04:53:03	02:59:10	08:52:26
3	Susie Cheetham	GBR	00:53:56	04:57:43	03:08:36	09:04:49

Course Records

Leg	Gender	Record	Athlete	Date
Total	overall	07:58:40	Ben Hoffman	2017-04-02
Swim	overall	00:45:22	Anton Storm	2009-04-05
Bike	overall	04:19:41	Raynard Tissink	2011-04-10
Run	overall	02:42:52	Ben Hoffman	2017-04-02
Total	female	08:33:56	Chrissie Wellington	2011-04-10
Swim	female	00:47:40	Lucie Zelenkova	2009-04-05
Bike	female	04:45:23	Chrissie Wellington	2011-04-10
Run	female	02:52:54	Chrissie Wellington	2011-04-10

Course Rating

The Course Rating for IM South Africa is 03:26.

Race Adjustments for IM South Africa

Year	Adjustment	Swim Adj.	Bike Adj.	Run Adj.	# of Finishers	Rating	Swim Rating	Bike Rating	Run Rating
2006	01:35	-04:53	-01:53	-00:21	28	01:35	-04:53	-01:53	-00:21
2007	01:16	-08:52	03:31	00:49	33	01:26	-06:52	00:49	00:14
2008	15:32	01:13	11:14	04:15	36	06:08	-04:11	04:18	01:34
2009	17:18	02:09	10:45	-01:03	28	08:55	-02:36	05:54	00:55
2010	09:39	-00:15	08:15	01:15	34	09:04	-02:08	06:23	00:59
2011	15:31	00:13	14:40	01:56	36	10:08	-01:44	07:45	01:08
2012	-11:59	-08:35	-08:23	01:54	28	06:59	-02:43	05:27	01:15
2013	06:23	-01:17	11:20	03:07	36 of 44	06:54	-02:32	06:11	01:29
2014	-12:13	-01:05	-08:46	-02:56	29 of 40	04:47	-02:22	04:32	00:59
2015	-13:45	-00:47	-10:09	-00:57	49 of 61	02:56	-02:13	03:04	00:48
2016	03:32	-02:43	09:06	01:34	42 of 53	02:59	-02:16	03:37	00:52
2017	08:21	-00:05	08:49	01:36	43 of 63	03:26	-02:05	04:03	00:56

KPR points and Prize Money

IM South Africa is a P-4000 race. It has a total prize purse of 150.000 US$ and automatic Kona qualifier slots for the winners.

Estimated Time Plan

The following table shows the time plan for the race start and the estimated times for the first athlete to end each leg or finish the race. 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:

What	Racetime	Local Time
Male Pro Start		06:30
Female Pro Start		06:35
Age Group Start		06:45
First Male Out of Water	00:48	07:18
First Female Out of Water	00:49	07:24
First Male End of Bike	05:17	11:47
First Female End of Bike	05:52	12:27
Male Winner	08:08	14:38
Female Winner	09:02	15:37

Port Elizabeth is on South Africa Standard Time, 2 hours ahead of UTC. Here are the conversions to a few other time zones:

• +8 hours: Melbourne (AEST), race starts at 2:30 pm
• -1 hour: United Kingdom (BST), race starts at 5:30
• no change: Central Europe (CEST), race starts at 6:30
• – 6 hours: US East Coast (EDT), race starts at 12:30am
• – 9 hours: US West Coast (PDT), race starts at 9:30pm on Saturday

There is going to be live TV coverage for the race in South Africa, so we can expect a live stream on Ironman.com as well.

Male Race Participants

The strength of the field is 25% of a typical Kona field.

#	Bib	Name	Nat	Expected	Rating	ESwim	EBike	ET2	ERun	Consistency	Overall
1	1	Ben Hoffman	USA	08:07:57	08:17:42	00:50:31	04:25:44	05:21:15	02:46:42	43% +47% -9% (20)	9
2	4	James Cunnama	ZAF	08:15:13	08:20:37	00:50:30	04:26:22	05:21:52	02:53:21	45% +35% -19% (26)	14
3	17	Maurice Clavel	GER	08:17:19	08:38:13	00:50:21	04:25:08	05:20:29	02:56:50	47% +0% -53% (2)	(70)
4	5	Matt Trautman	ZAF	08:21:30	08:25:10	00:52:39	04:33:53	05:31:31	02:49:59	80% +0% -20% (6)	(22)
5	8	Ronnie Schildknecht	SUI	08:22:45	08:28:02	00:54:05	04:31:45	05:30:51	02:51:54	61% +0% -38% (34)	32
6	2	Kyle Buckingham	ZAF	08:22:49	08:31:55	00:51:03	04:33:43	05:29:47	02:53:02	65% +12% -22% (14)	47
7	18	Alessandro Degasperi	ITA	08:25:40	08:27:28	00:53:21	04:38:56	05:37:17	02:48:23	73% +0% -27% (13)	30
8	7	Eneko Llanos	ESP	08:26:18	08:28:58	00:50:31	04:29:49	05:25:20	03:00:58	85% +0% -15% (33)	34
9	6	Cameron Wurf	AUS	08:27:18	08:32:00	00:51:54	04:20:31	05:17:25	03:09:53	45% +43% -12% (9)	49
10	27	Giulio Molinari	ITA	08:28:19	08:31:38	00:50:30	04:31:09	05:26:39	03:01:40	100% +0% -0% (3)	45
11	12	Peru Alfaro	ESP	08:28:55	08:45:47	00:49:08	04:38:37	05:32:45	02:56:10	82% +0% -18% (3)	(90)
12	32	Evert Scheltinga	NED	08:29:43	08:34:05	00:51:01	04:30:56	05:26:57	03:02:46	77% +0% -23% (4)	55
13	3	Josh Amberger	AUS	08:32:44	08:35:28	00:48:22	04:28:32	05:21:54	03:10:50	57% +27% -15% (4)	61
14	11	Markus Fachbach	GER	08:33:21	08:41:20	00:51:48	04:36:25	05:33:14	03:00:07	60% +1% -40% (22)	80
15	9	Michael Raelert	GER	08:33:41	08:54:08	00:49:50	04:40:32	05:35:21	02:58:20	31% +0% -69% (4)	(120)
16	15	Alberto Casadei	ITA	08:35:41	08:49:52	00:49:49	04:45:52	05:40:41	02:55:00	34% +27% -39% (10)	104
17	20	Pedro Gomes	POR	08:37:50	08:43:05	00:53:49	04:44:12	05:43:01	02:54:49	57% +1% -43% (30)	83
18	33	Jonathan Shearon	USA	08:40:53	08:49:21	00:55:58	04:38:17	05:39:15	03:01:38	66% +6% -28% (20)	102
19	24	Philipp Koutny	SUI	08:42:26	08:56:30	00:52:51	04:36:30	05:34:22	03:08:04	46% +0% -54% (7)	131
20	31	Michael Ruenz	GER	08:43:26	08:51:56	00:57:17	04:45:22	05:47:39	02:55:47	68% +0% -32% (12)	113
21	34	Darby Thomas	FIN	08:48:38	09:01:05	01:01:14	04:41:43	05:47:57	03:00:41	53% +0% -47% (12)	153
22	28	Hans Muehlbauer	GER	09:09:16	09:23:25	00:54:07	05:05:33	06:04:40	03:04:36	45% +0% -55% (10)	(220)
23	10	Gerhard De Bruin	ZAF	09:16:31	09:29:52	00:57:10	04:57:10	05:59:20	03:17:11	76% +24% -0% (6)	(234)
24	21	Christian Jais	GER	09:17:05	09:40:35	00:58:45	04:48:30	05:52:15	03:24:50	18% +31% -51% (3)	(258)
25	16	Bekim Christensen	DEN	09:19:59	09:56:46	01:06:58	04:54:09	06:06:07	03:13:52	11% +0% -89% (3)	(273)
26	19	Alain Djouad-Guibert	MOR	10:29:54	11:05:02	01:16:02	05:12:41	06:33:42	03:56:12	12% +21% -67% (5)	(295)
27	23	Aleksander Kochetkov	LTU	10:51:18	11:11:58	01:11:38	05:38:42	06:55:20	03:55:58	n/a (1 IM Pro race)	(296)
	14	Reece Barclay	GBR	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	22	Bruno Joaquim	BRA	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	25	Philippe Lamberty	LUX	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	29	Sebastian Norberg	SWE	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (1 IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	30	Artem Parienko	RUS	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)

Female Race Participants

The strength of the field is 30% of a typical Kona field.

#	Bib	Name	Nat	Expected	Rating	ESwim	EBike	ET2	ERun	Consistency	Overall
1	42	Lucy Charles	GBR	09:01:43	09:11:18	00:49:24	04:57:59	05:52:23	03:09:20	21% +79% -0% (3)	4
2	41	Susie Cheetham	GBR	09:09:57	09:14:05	00:56:40	05:03:28	06:05:09	03:04:48	87% +0% -13% (8)	5
3	49	Michelle Vesterby	DEN	09:15:58	09:19:44	00:54:21	05:01:25	06:00:46	03:15:12	78% +1% -20% (24)	8
4	44	Linsey Corbin	USA	09:17:40	09:19:59	01:00:21	05:05:40	06:11:01	03:06:39	95% +5% -0% (24)	9
5	63	Maja Stage Nielsen	DEN	09:19:55	09:22:13	01:01:00	05:05:09	06:11:09	03:08:46	100% +0% -0% (3)	17
6	46	Katja Konschak	GER	09:29:18	09:43:02	00:55:44	05:16:45	06:17:29	03:11:49	42% +38% -20% (20)	49
7	45	Gurutze Frades Larralde	ESP	09:32:33	09:40:34	01:03:11	05:14:29	06:22:40	03:09:53	70% +18% -12% (10)	46
8	59	Rachel McBride	CAN	09:33:53	09:41:52	00:55:02	04:59:25	05:59:28	03:34:25	100% +0% -0% (3)	48
9	51	Annah Watkinson	ZAF	09:34:21	09:48:01	01:01:00	05:10:37	06:16:36	03:17:45	58% +0% -42% (6)	57
10	47	Nikki Bartlett	GBR	09:36:25	09:54:15	01:01:42	05:08:09	06:14:51	03:21:34	69% +0% -31% (4)	69
11	53	Saleta Castro Nogueira	ESP	09:42:08	09:49:02	00:57:36	05:23:14	06:25:50	03:16:18	74% +19% -8% (15)	61
12	58	Carolin Lehrieder	GER	09:42:28	10:20:29	00:57:34	05:16:41	06:19:15	03:23:13	20% +7% -73% (11)	(115)
13	48	Katharina Grohmann	GER	09:42:35	09:53:30	01:13:07	05:10:58	06:29:05	03:13:30	77% +23% -0% (17)	67
14	57	Martina Kunz	SUI	09:43:07	09:55:40	01:04:41	05:10:42	06:20:23	03:22:44	100% +0% -0% (2)	(71)
15	60	Leslie DiMichele Miller	USA	09:45:11	09:54:25	01:00:09	05:23:14	06:28:23	03:16:48	72% +16% -12% (8)	70
16	55	Manon Genet	FRA	09:48:57	10:00:17	01:00:20	05:08:17	06:13:37	03:35:20	27% +37% -35% (3)	(76)
17	56	Corina Hengartner	SUI	09:49:20	10:06:37	01:04:04	05:12:30	06:21:34	03:27:46	34% +32% -34% (7)	90
18	62	Lina-Kristin Schink	GER	09:57:48	10:15:09	01:12:49	05:22:52	06:40:42	03:17:06	57% +18% -24% (10)	109
19	54	Camille Donat	FRA	10:13:45	10:33:13	00:53:28	05:30:11	06:28:40	03:45:05	n/a (1 IM Pro race)	(132)
20	61	Charlotte Morel	FRA	10:31:25	10:51:28	00:56:38	05:16:24	06:18:01	04:13:24	n/a (1 IM Pro race)	(144)
21	52	Patricia Bueno Perez	ESP	10:43:15	11:04:27	01:05:57	05:44:27	06:55:25	03:47:50	46% +54% -0% (2)	(148)
	43	Emma Pallant	GBR	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	50	Judith Corachan Vacquero	ESP	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (1 IM Pro race)	(n/a)

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

Ben Hoffman, the winner of the last two years, is back to defend his title and is the favorite to extend his winning streak in Port Elizabeth. James Cunnama has been chasing a good result in his home IM for a long time, he hopes to win this race since his third place in 2011. Last year he was a disappointing tenth, but since then he’s been superb on the IM distance, including a win at IM Hamburg and a fifth in Kona. Two Australians are expected to play a big role in the race: Josh Amberger will likely lead the race in T1, and Cam Wurf should be the fastest bike rider in the field and should take the lead before T2, maybe even posting a new bike course record (provided the conditions are favorable). But as always in a Regional Championship field, there are lots of candidates for the win and almost the whole field looks to score solid points for a potential Kona qualification.

• Ben Hoffman: 56% (1-1)
• James Cunnama: 22% (3-1)
• Josh Amberger: 6% (17-1)
• Ronnie Schildknecht: 5% (19-1)
• Kyle Buckingham: 3% (35-1)
• Alessandro Degasperi: 2% (55-1)
• Matt Trautman: 2% (57-1)
• Cameron Wurf: 2% (65-1)

Female Race Participants

For various reasons, none of the previous champions are on the start list this year, so we are going to have a new winner. The odds are favoring one of the British to come home with the title: Lucy Charles made great improvements in 2017 and looks like a very likely T1 and T2 leader, but Susie Cheetham has also had a very solid 2017 season and has been on the podium in Port Elizabeth in all three of her IM South Africa starts. With Emma Pallant there is another interesting British athlete in the field: The second place finisher at 70.3 Worlds will be racing her first Ironman. Michelle Vesterby (20 IM finishes) and Linsey Corbin (23 IM finishes) are two experienced athletes that also have good winning chances, but there are a lot more athletes on the start list that will look for a good start of the season after their winter training block.

• Lucy Charles: 44% (1-1)
• Susie Cheetham: 31% (2-1)
• Michelle Vesterby: 17% (5-1)
• Linsey Corbin: 5% (17-1)