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.
| Rank | Name | Nation | Swim | Bike | Run | Time | Diff to exp. | Prize Money | KPR Points |
| 1 | Tim Don | GBR | 00:44:16 | 04:06:56 | 02:44:46 | 07:40:23 | -25:22 | US$ 30,000 | 4000 |
| 2 | Kyle Buckingham | ZAF | 00:47:12 | 04:28:48 | 02:45:18 | 08:05:43 | -04:55 | US$ 15,000 | 3400 |
| 3 | Igor Amorelli | BRA | 00:44:23 | 04:27:20 | 02:51:00 | 08:06:58 | -07:04 | US$ 8,000 | 2890 |
| 4 | Reinaldo Colucci | BRA | 00:44:22 | 04:26:58 | 02:53:58 | 08:10:04 | -19:33 | US$ 6,500 | 2455 |
| 5 | Thiago Vinhal | BRA | 00:45:44 | 04:30:08 | 02:50:35 | 08:11:46 | -19:39 | US$ 5,000 | 2090 |
| 6 | Luis Henrique Ohde | BRA | 00:46:18 | 04:30:15 | 02:51:29 | 08:12:45 | -06:38 | US$ 3,500 | 1670 |
| 7 | Patrick Evoe | USA | 00:51:07 | 04:26:30 | 02:54:04 | 08:16:26 | -15:59 | US$ 2,500 | 1335 |
| 8 | Mario De Elias | ARG | 00:48:51 | 04:37:40 | 02:48:05 | 08:19:17 | -05:58 | US$ 2,000 | 1070 |
| 9 | Fellipe Santos | BRA | 00:44:27 | 04:38:05 | 02:55:49 | 08:23:40 | -18:14 | US$ 1,500 | 855 |
| 10 | Philipp Koutny | SUI | 00:50:58 | 04:35:21 | 02:56:00 | 08:27:27 | 01:17 | US$ 1,000 | 685 |
| 11 | Frank Silvestrin | BRA | 00:47:16 | 04:39:24 | 03:01:38 | 08:32:56 | 05:56 | 515 | |
| 12 | Felipe De Oliveira Manente | BRA | 00:51:05 | 04:44:47 | 03:06:36 | 08:48:53 | -11:49 | 385 | |
| 13 | Luiz Francisco Paiva Ferreira | BRA | 00:44:12 | 04:39:49 | 03:27:28 | 08:56:45 | -18:03 | 290 | |
| 14 | Vinicius Canhedo | BRA | 00:47:36 | 04:44:32 | 03:19:05 | 08:56:45 | n/a | 215 | |
| 15 | Andreas Raelert | GER | 00:44:30 | 04:27:16 | 03:45:59 | 09:02:20 | 1:03:24 | 160 | |
| 16 | Harry Wiltshire | GBR | 00:44:14 | 05:13:51 | 03:01:50 | 09:05:05 | 39:34 | 120 | |
| 17 | Rodrigo Sanchez | ARG | 00:55:55 | 05:18:38 | 03:02:55 | 09:25:31 | n/a | 90 | |
| 18 | Christian Carletto | ARG | 00:53:18 | 04:56:24 | 03:40:06 | 09:36:43 | 18:35 | 70 | |
| 19 | Eduardo Diaz | ARG | 00:56:08 | 05:19:17 | 03:39:37 | 10:03:06 | n/a | 50 | |
| 20 | Diego Vasquez | ECU | 00:57:20 | 04:48:10 | 05:27:30 | 11:21:40 | n/a | 40 | |
| Brent McMahon | CAN | 00:47:04 | 04:29:24 | DNF | |||||
| Paul Matthews | AUS | 00:44:21 | 04:32:27 | DNF | |||||
| Pedro Gomes | POR | 00:48:54 | 04:37:40 | DNF | |||||
| Barrett Brandon | USA | 00:44:27 | DNF | ||||||
| Matt Chrabot | USA | 00:46:35 | DNF | ||||||
| Eneko Llanos | ESP | 00:47:40 | DNF | ||||||
| Fabio Carvalho | BRA | 00:48:49 | DNF | ||||||
| Bruno Matheus | BRA | 00:48:59 | DNF | ||||||
| Josef Svoboda | CZE | 01:07:21 | DNF |
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.
| Rank | Name | Nation | Swim | Bike | Run | Time | Diff to exp. | Prize Money | KPR Points |
| 1 | Susie Cheetham | GBR | 00:50:42 | 04:53:02 | 03:02:41 | 08:52:00 | 03:01 | US$ 30,000 | 4000 |
| 2 | Sonja Tajsich | GER | 00:55:42 | 04:53:48 | 03:02:41 | 08:57:36 | -09:53 | US$ 15,000 | 3400 |
| 3 | Haley Chura | USA | 00:48:09 | 04:55:18 | 03:09:30 | 08:58:45 | -09:30 | US$ 8,000 | 2890 |
| 4 | Gurutze Frades Larralde | ESP | 00:55:38 | 04:53:20 | 03:06:42 | 09:01:00 | -18:22 | US$ 6,500 | 2455 |
| 5 | Linsey Corbin | USA | 00:54:41 | 04:54:12 | 03:01:45 | 09:01:13 | 07:59 | US$ 5,000 | 2090 |
| 6 | Mareen Hufe | GER | 00:55:31 | 04:51:16 | 03:09:15 | 09:01:44 | -02:34 | US$ 3,500 | 1670 |
| 7 | Annah Watkinson | ZAF | 00:55:35 | 04:53:44 | 03:10:04 | 09:04:59 | -07:54 | US$ 2,500 | 1335 |
| 8 | Pamela Tastets | CHI | 00:53:08 | 04:55:51 | 03:12:57 | 09:07:56 | -04:48 | US$ 2,000 | 1070 |
| 9 | Elisabeth Gruber | AUT | 00:55:33 | 05:04:39 | 03:00:38 | 09:08:16 | 02:53 | US$ 1,500 | 855 |
| 10 | Magali Tisseyre | CAN | 00:50:15 | 04:58:40 | 03:14:12 | 09:09:49 | n/a | US$ 1,000 | 685 |
| 11 | Kristin Moeller | GER | 00:55:33 | 05:12:47 | 02:58:42 | 09:12:43 | -03:40 | 515 | |
| 12 | Bruna Mahn | BRA | 00:54:42 | 05:14:51 | 03:12:16 | 09:27:26 | -18:09 | 385 | |
| 13 | Nicole Valentine | USA | 00:55:32 | 05:09:51 | 03:19:40 | 09:30:37 | -12:25 | 290 | |
| 14 | Mariana Andrade | BRA | 00:55:13 | 05:00:16 | 04:02:48 | 10:03:52 | 12:16 | 215 | |
| 15 | Erika Simon | ARG | 00:59:14 | 05:30:17 | 03:33:44 | 10:10:53 | n/a | 160 | |
| Brooke Brown | CAN | 00:58:17 | 05:12:10 | DNF | |||||
| Celine Schaerer | SUI | 00:49:11 | DNF | ||||||
| Carolin Lehrieder | GER | 00:53:04 | DNF |
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)