Ironman South Africa 2017 – Analyzing Results

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.

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to exp.	Prize Money	KPR Points
1	Ben Hoffman	USA	00:49:14	04:22:33	02:42:52	07:58:40	-19:14	US$ 30,000	4000
2	Nils Frommhold	GER	00:49:05	04:22:31	02:43:43	07:59:30	-12:12	US$ 15,000	3400
3	David McNamee	GBR	00:49:09	04:28:45	02:45:36	08:07:31	-10:07	US$ 8,000	2890
4	Kyle Buckingham	ZAF	00:49:15	04:28:38	02:47:09	08:08:58	-21:27	US$ 6,500	2455
5	Jan Van Berkel	SUI	00:49:12	04:28:41	02:50:46	08:12:35	-22:21	US$ 5,000	2090
6	Boris Stein	GER	00:53:57	04:23:49	02:54:05	08:16:12	-00:48	US$ 3,500	1670
7	Frederik Van Lierde	BEL	00:49:05	04:28:32	02:57:02	08:19:10	07:18	US$ 2,500	1335
8	Giulio Molinari	ITA	00:49:07	04:28:34	02:59:16	08:21:09	01:25	US$ 2,000	1070
9	Andrej Vistica	CRO	00:53:53	04:34:43	02:50:01	08:23:21	-09:20	US$ 1,500	855
10	James Cunnama	ZAF	00:49:10	04:28:47	03:02:46	08:24:42	-01:34	US$ 1,000	685
11	Cameron Wurf	AUS	00:49:13	04:20:11	03:11:44	08:25:31	-31:04		515
12	Joe Skipper	GBR	00:53:59	04:32:04	02:57:57	08:28:46	04:13		385
13	Evert Scheltinga	NED	00:49:12	04:28:40	03:08:59	08:31:04	n/a		290
14	Eneko Llanos	ESP	00:49:19	04:28:31	03:11:44	08:34:15	16:35		215
15	Mario De Elias	ARG	00:53:58	04:34:47	03:03:29	08:36:22	-07:15		160
16	Johann Ackermann	GER	00:49:06	04:34:37	03:07:56	08:39:44	13:12		120
17	Roman Deisenhofer	GER	00:49:18	04:33:46	03:15:34	08:43:30	-01:00		90
18	Josh Amberger	AUS	00:48:02	04:29:29	03:23:11	08:44:41	n/a		70
19	Diego Van Looy	BEL	01:05:44	04:46:28	02:51:42	08:49:32	09:01		50
20	Erik-Simon Strijk	NED	00:53:54	04:34:39	03:27:10	09:00:36	21:10		40
21	Gerhard De Bruin	ZAF	00:55:46	04:53:50	03:13:00	09:07:31	-16:55		25
22	Freddy Lampret	ZAF	00:55:50	04:53:26	03:58:22	09:52:28	42:16		25
23	Emanuele Ciotti	ITA	00:53:56	04:58:15	03:54:46	09:53:08	32:22		25
24	Petr Vabrousek	CZE	01:00:07	05:41:27	03:11:04	09:59:52	54:39		25
25	Valentin Zasypkin	RUS	01:12:27	05:23:03	03:33:42	10:13:45	-32:17		25
	Carlos Aznar Gallego	ESP				DNF
	Christian Kramer	GER	00:49:10	04:37:07		DNF
	Jens Petersen-Bach	DEN	00:49:11	04:42:34		DNF
	Fredrik Baeckson	SWE	00:56:28	04:46:25		DNF
	Balazs Csoke	HUN	00:49:02	04:55:57		DNF
	Greg Close	USA	00:59:42	04:56:49		DNF
	Harry Wiltshire	GBR	00:48:05	05:17:49		DNF
	Ivan Risti	ITA	00:49:11			DNF
	Vinicius Canhedo	BRA	00:53:51			DNF
	Victor Del Corral	ESP	00:53:55			DNF
	Toumy Degham	FRA	00:54:00			DNF
	Bekim Christensen	DEN	01:05:14			DNF

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.

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to exp.	Prize Money	KPR Points
1	Daniela Ryf	SUI	00:53:48	04:50:50	02:57:27	08:47:02	06:07	US$ 30,000	4000
2	Kaisa Lehtonen	FIN	00:55:29	04:53:03	02:59:10	08:52:26	-12:17	US$ 15,000	3400
3	Susie Cheetham	GBR	00:53:56	04:57:43	03:08:36	09:04:49	-02:43	US$ 8,000	2890
4	Astrid Stienen	GER	01:01:07	05:01:42	03:16:52	09:24:37	05:58	US$ 6,500	2455
5	Gurutze Frades Larralde	ESP	01:00:37	05:11:20	03:08:02	09:24:59	-16:30	US$ 5,000	2090
6	Katja Konschak	GER	00:53:57	05:09:48	03:15:01	09:25:40	-16:42	US$ 3,500	1670
7	Alexandra Tondeur	BEL	00:58:37	05:08:06	03:13:09	09:26:29	-06:12	US$ 2,500	1335
8	Jeanne Collonge	FRA	00:59:47	05:04:58	03:16:09	09:27:18	-12:03	US$ 2,000	1070
9	Nikki Bartlett	GBR	00:58:40	05:03:09	03:19:59	09:27:49	-14:47	US$ 1,500	855
10	Katharina Grohmann	GER	01:10:04	05:05:47	03:08:56	09:29:20	-19:07	US$ 1,000	685
11	Ariane Monticeli	BRA	00:58:45	05:13:11	03:11:48	09:29:27	-06:42		515
12	Kate Comber	GBR	00:53:48	05:15:47	03:31:24	09:47:44	01:57		385
13	Manon Genet	FRA	00:58:44	05:03:36	03:42:29	09:50:32	n/a		290
14	Diane Luethi	SUI	00:58:34	05:17:12	03:31:51	09:52:50	05:41		215
15	Lina-Kristin Schink	GER	01:11:31	05:24:17	03:14:13	09:54:47	-06:42		160
16	Julia Gajer	GER	00:53:54	04:55:58	04:00:13	09:55:08	47:56		120
17	Jenny Fletcher	CAN	00:58:41	05:20:59	03:33:14	09:59:27	12:01		90
18	Steph Corker	CAN	01:01:41	05:27:35	03:28:32	10:04:18	n/a		70
	Natascha Schmitt	GER	00:58:43	05:15:21		DNF
	Kristin Moeller	GER	01:06:23	05:09:18		DNF
	Dimity-Lee Duke	AUS	00:58:37	05:25:19		DNF
	Danielle Mack	USA	01:06:12	05:34:36		DNF
	Carolin Lehrieder	GER	00:58:29			DNF
	Kirsty Jahn	CAN	00:58:33			DNF
	Annah Watkinson	ZAF	00:58:39			DNF
	Helena Herrero Gomez	ESP	01:09:05			DNF

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)

Nils Frommhold is on the bubble, another 70.3 race should be enough to secure the remaining points he still needs. Kyle Buckingham needs at least another 500 points, he probably needs another Ironman race.

Female Slots