Update October 8th: Terenzo Bozzone announced on his blog that he will be traveling to Kona, but only to “to watch the race and help out with some sponsor stuff.”

Update October: 3rd: Mel Hauschildt has been forced to withdraw an MRI confirmed a stress fracture of her sacrum. More details can be found on this post by firstoffthebike.

Update September 29th: Victor Del Corral announced on his Facebook page that he has a stress fracture of is calcaneus and has said ‘bye bye’ to Kona 2015. 

Update September 17th: Corinne Abraham will also not be able to start in Kona after a string of problems including a September operation for an abscess and full-on antibiotics (details on her blog). 

Update September 16th: Pete Jacobs announced on his blog that he won’t be able to start in Kona.

Update September 4th: Ironman has announced both the names of the Pro athletes and their bib numbers. I have updated the post accordingly. I assume this also means that there will be no more roll down, any slots opening up by athletes not being able to race won’t be filled.

Update September 1st: Laurel Wassner accepted a roll-down slot from Sonja Tajsich.

After all Kona slots have been accepted, here is the preliminary start list for Kona 2015. There can still be some changes to the list – some athletes may get injured and decide not to start after all. There may be a few day in early September for a slot to roll down, but not closer to the race – that slot will just be gone then. I will update this list if any slots are declined or athletes announce that they won’t start.

I provide a lot more details on the race and the participants in my free “Kona Rating Report” which you can already order at https://gum.co/Kona2015.

Male Race Participants

Female Race Participants

Race Conditions

Similar to the results there were for Challenge Vichy in 2013, the course was pretty quick (adjustment of 16:12, comparable to Western Australia or Sweden and faster than IM Germany. Both the bike and the run were relatively fast.

Male Race Results

Bertrand Billard was leading the race for most of the day, but eventually he had to settle for second as Mauro Bartsch (coached by TBB’s Jo Spindler) took the win with a 2:52:34 marathon. Only Chris Brader had a faster run, he finished in third.

Female Race Results

For a long time it looked as if Natascha Badmann could win another IM – but muscular problems caught up with her on the run and she had to settle for third. Gurutze Frades had the best run of the day and won the race. Veteran Tine Holst finished second and took her first IM podium.

Update (Aug 26th): I have added Natascha Badmann and Nicole Woysch to the female start list, while Corinne Abraham said she is definitely not racing in Vichy and unlikely to race before Kona.

Update (Aug 28th): Unfortunately, Dirk Bockel had to withdraw from the race.

Ironman Vichy is held on a similar course as Challenge Vichy in previous years and is organized by the same company (that was bought by WTC). The race struggled to field a decent Pro field in the last few years and it was shortened to a half IM because of extreme weather conditions – therefore I don’t have reliable data from the earlier editions. However, it could be a fast race, especially on the bike.

KPR points and Prize Money

IM Vichy is a P-2000 race. It has a total prize purse of 25.000 US$.

Male Race Participants

Female Race Participants

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

Dirk Bockel is returning to IM racing after a long injury break. If he is anywhere close to his previous form, he is the clear favorite to win this race and start his quest to qualify for Kona 2016: With Dirk Bockel not starting, the race is pretty open:

• Dirk Bockel: 60% (1-1)
• Marc Duelsen: 16% (5-1)
• Michael Ruenz: 8% (11-1)
• Mauro Baertsch: 8% (11-1)
• Christian Brader: 3% (36-1)
• Mike Schifferle: 2% (52-1)
• Andrey Lyatskiy: 2% (65-1)

Female Race Participants

Corinne has been on virtually all July and August IM start list, but as she is qualified for Kona without additional racing, she won’t be racing in Vichy. In her absence, Natascha Badmann is the clear favorite:

• Natascha Badmann: 73% (1-1)
• Tine Holst: 11% (8-1)
• Maria Lemeseva: 6% (17-1)
• Gurutze Frades Larralde: 5% (18-1)
• Alyssa Godesky: 4% (27-1)

Race Conditions

Copenhagen was again a pretty quick course, especially on the bike. As usual, we saw some quick times even if they were not close to the course record times from one or two years ago.

Male Race Results

Henrik Hyledlund was intent on defending his title from last year, however Guilherme Manocchio’s race best 2:54 marathon proved too strong for Henrik who had to be content with the second place. Third place went to Andreas Niedrig – at 47 years of age he must be one of the oldest podium finishers in an IM!

Female Race Results

Michelle Vesterby lead the race from wire to wire, winning her home IM in just under 9 hours. Sofie Goos finished a solid second with the race best 3:07 marathon, securing a Kona slot. Sonja Tajsich finished third, also getting a last minute August slot.

Race Conditions

Ironman Japan is always one of the slowest races, and this year was no exception with an adjustment of -27:28 mainly because of a very slow bike.

Male Race Results

The race was decided on the bike: Swen Sandberg posted the fastest bike ride of the day and won by a comfortable margin. Patrick Evoe used his strong bike and fastest run to finish second, followed by early race leader Simon Cochrane.

Female Race Results

Shia-yu Li had the best run of the day (only a few seconds slower than the men’s best run!) to win the race – for the third time in a row and a Kona slot! She was followed by Bree Wee who was leading the race for most of the day and Emi Sakai.