IM South Africa

Race Conditions

Even if it was hot and windy, the conditions were quick this year: An adjustment of 8:21 was about five minutes quicker than last year which had been pretty typical for South Africa.

The winning time by Ben Hoffman of 7:58:40 was the first sub-8 finish ever in South Africa – even with the course changes last year this was a great new course record (the old fastest time was 8:05 by Raynard Tissink from 2011). Ben also posted a new run course record of 2:42:52, improving on the 2007 time by Gerrit Schellens. Nils Frommhold was also under both old course records, but was just a touch slower than Ben.

On the female side both Daniela and Kaisa finished sub-9 and were clearly under last year’s winning time, but the course records are still held by Chrissie Wellington from her 2011 win in 8:33 (including a 4:45 bike and a 2:52 marathon).

Male Race Results

As expected Cameron Wurf was leading on the bike, but when he lost some of his advantage towards the end of the bike leg, it was clear that he’d have a hard time to hold on to his lead on the run. Defending champion Ben Hoffman quickly went to the front on the marathon and even though Nils Frommhold was running strong and didn’t let Ben get away too far, he was never able to completely close the gap. In the end, Ben won by 50 seconds over Nils. Third place went to David McNamee who had the best run of the athletes in the second bike chase group, closely followed by South African Kyle Buckingham and Jan Van Berkel who were both having great days including strong marathons.

Female Race Results

When Daniela Ryf was second out of the water (same time as Kate Comber) it looked like another start-to-finish win for her. But then Kaisa Lehtonen, Susie Cheetham and Julia Gajer were able to overtake her and build a two-minute lead towards the 90k mark. After the race Daniela revealed that she had back issues and almost didn’t start. After about three hours the pain eased and Daniela was able to take the lead in the second half of the bike, posting the fastest bike split of the day. She also posted a 2:57 marathon – the fastest run of the day – and won in 8:47. Kaisa Lehtonen also had a strong run and though she was five minutes back it never looked as if Daniela could just cruise home. Kaisa improved on her winning 9:06 finish from last year by more than 14 minutes. Third place went to Susie Cheetham who finished on the podium for the third time in three years of racing South Africa. When Julia Gajer started to struggle on the run (she had to dig deep to at least be able to finish the race), there were eight athletes within a few minutes close to the finish line – in the end there were five minutes between 4th and 11th place. Astrid Stienen had the most even race, she rode a 5:01 and was able to run a 3:16 marathon, just 22 seconds in front of Gurutze Frades in fifth.

Kona Qualifying

The points from IM South Africa allowed a number of athletes to improve their chances for Kona qualifying.

Male Slots

The following athletes have secured their Kona slots:

• Ben Hoffman (Automatic Qualifier as a Regional Champion)
• Frederik Van Lierde (Automatic Qualifier as a previous Kona champion, he had already validated)
• Boris Stein (safe with 5.920 points)
• David McNamee (safe with 4.790 points)

Female Slots

The following athletes have secured their Kona slots:

• Daniela Ryf (Automatic Qualifier as a previous Kona champion and winner of a Regional Championship)
• Kaisa Lehtonen (safe with 9.495 points)
• Astrid Stienen (safe with 5.495 points)

Susie Cheetham has improved her total to 3.480 points, she will likely have to race another Ironman to secure a Kona slot.

With Ironman South Africa, the first Regional Championship of 2017 is coming up, offering direct Kona slots for the winners. The resulting fields are very strong, both defending Champions Kaisa Lehtonen and Ben Hoffman are back. On the male side we have the three last winners (Nils Frommhold, Frederik Van Lierde and Ben Hoffmann), on the female side we have Kona winner Daniela Ryf and three of the five Regional Champions from last year (Kaisa Lehtonen, Julia Gajer who won IM Texas and Jodie Cunnama who won IM Cairns).

Update March 28th: Jodie Cunnama announced she won’t be racing “for health reasons”.

Update March 27th: On Twitter Rachel McBride said “Wish I was there! Alas not racing”.

Update March 17th: Mareen Hufe (planning to race IM Brasil) and Laura Siddall won’t be racing.

Update March 20th: Alessandro Degasperi has announced on his blog he’ll focus on IM Lanzarote.

Previous Winners

Last Year’s TOP 3

Male Race Results

Female Race Results

Course Records

Course Rating

The Course Rating for IM South Africa is 02:59.

Race Adjustments for IM South Africa

KPR points and Prize Money

IM South Africa 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 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:

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

Male Race Participants

Female Race Participants

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

The male race has two favorites – the winners from the last two years. Frederik Van Lierde had a fantastic race in Port Elizabeth in 2015, but Ben might have the momentum after a great 2016 season. Nils Frommhold is the 2014 winner, he’s looking for a good result after a frustrating 2016 season cut short by another stress fracture. Boris Stein needs just a finish for a Kona slot, but as last year he’ll be racing aggressively to test for any weaknesses to work on over the summer.

• Frederik Van Lierde: 33% (2-1)
• Ben Hoffman: 32% (2-1)
• Nils Frommhold: 21% (4-1)
• Boris Stein: 9% (10-1)

There is a number of other strong contenders not shown in the above list, for example I expect Eneko Llanos, Joe Skipper and David McNamee to contend for a podium spot.

Female Race Participants

There can’t be any discussion that two-time Kona champion Daniela Ryf has to be the favorite, even if the race is early in her season. Jodie Cunnama is likely to be leading after the swim, it’ll be interesting to see if she tries to go with Daniela on the bike, trying to reclaim her 2015 title that she lost after crashing under dubious circumstances last year. Kaisa Lehtonen has proven in Kona that her win at IM South Africa in 2016 wasn’t a “fluke result”, I’m looking forward to see her race after deciding to be coached by Siri Lindley last fall.

• Daniela Ryf: 69% (1-1)
• Kaisa Lehtonen: 15% (6-1)
• Jodie Cunnama: 7% (14-1)

Susie Cheetham (3rd in 2015, 2nd in 2016, so what’s in store for 2017?) should be in the mix for at least a podium spot, and I expect a number of German athletes such as Julia Gajer, Astrid Stienen or Mareen Hufe (more likely to racing IM Brasil) to have some good early season form as well. Laura Siddall has already raced two IM-distance races in New Zealand, I’d be surprised to see her on the start line, but watch out for her if she is! (Laura has withdrawn from racing IM South Africa.)