Results of the 2017 Ho’ala Swim

The Ho’ala swim is held exactly one week before the Kona race on the swim course. It is used by a lot of athletes as an excellent open-water training session, the table below shows just the Kona Pros that I have been able to identify in the results, comparing their times in this year’s swim, their expected swim times for this years Ironman race (plus the difference, usually faster) and the same results (as long as they are available) for last year’s Ho’ala swim and Ironman Hawaii swim.

Some observations:

• Last year’s swim times were considerably faster than what was normal for Kona, apparently because the buoys marking the turnaround point have been re-positioned. This year’s Ho’ala swim times are comparable to those we have seen last year, so we can expect some fast swim times again for this year.
• While most athletes swam faster than their seeding times (not surprising for the shorter event), some went considerably quicker: Lionel Sanders, Patrick Evoe, Heather Jackson, Astrid Stienen, Mareen Hufe, Dimity-Lee Duke and Sarah Piampiano were more five minutes quicker than their seed times – great confidence boost for their Kona race!
• Eneko Llanos, Camilla Pedersen, Michi Herlbauer and Dimity-Lee Duke were more than one minute quicker than last year’s Ho’ala swim – certainly a good indicator for their swim form!
• A number of athletes also swam faster than in their Kona race last year – most notably Lionel Sanders who was four minutes quicker and Dimity-Lee Duke who was three minutes quicker. But some of the female favorites (Heather Jackson, Kaisa Sali, Sarah Piampiano) also put up great times .. lots of new fodder for speculations!