Ironman Malaysia 2017 – Analyzing Results

Race Conditions

Based on the results, this year’s IM Malaysia seemed to have pretty “fast” conditions. But for Malaysia this means that it wasn’t quit as hot as it normally is – and that was caused by rain pouring down on the competitors, not exactly the most comfortable racing conditions!

Still the “less hot” conditions allowed Diana Riesler to post a new overall course record (improving on Belinda Granger’s 2009 time), and Romain Guillaume was able to post the fastest bike and overall times since 2014 when Malaysia became an official Ironman again.

Male Race Results

As is typical for him, Rom Guillaume was part of the leading swim group and then took control of the race on the bike, building a lead of more than ten minutes by T2. In most of his 2017 races he struggled on the run, but in Malaysia he had enough energy for a solid 3:10 marathon, winning by four minutes. Second place went to Jens Petersen-Bach who had the fastest marathon of the day with 3 hours flat. Roman Deisenhofer was third, he was able to have the better marathon after racing most of the bike with Christian Kramer who finished in fourth place.

Female Race Results

Laurel Wassner was first out of the water, but the IM Taiwan winner didn’t have a good day and quickly lost ground. Pre-race favorites and last year’s top finishers Diana Riesler and Mareen Hufe came out of the water within second of each other, but Diana had the better bike legs and slowly pulled away from Mareen and the rest of the field, building a lead of roughly 8 minutes in T2. Mareen wasn’t able to challenge Diana’s lead on the run, and they once again finished 1-2. Diana claimed her fourth IM Malaysia title in a row, while Mareen claimed her seventh runner-up finish in an Ironman. The last spot on the podium went to Manon Genet in her second pro IM race. She was almost run down by Saleta Castro who had the fastest marathon in the female field.