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Some Kona 2019 Data Points

This post looks at some data points on the Kona 2019 Pro field. There’s going to be a lot more information about Kona and the Kona Pro field in my “Kona 2019 Rating Report” that you can already pre-order here.

Distribution by Nation

First, let’s have a look at how many Pro athletes are going to be racing in Kona and how those numbers have changed in recent years. I’m using 2011 as the starting year since the Kona Pro field has been pretty much around 90 athletes since then. In earlier years the Pro fields have been much larger – for example there were 148 Pro starters in 2009!

Here’s the graph that looks at the number of Pros broken down by nation:

Nations

Some main points:

  • The US has always had the largest number of Pro athletes racing in Kona. This year isn’t any different – the US has 21 Pro athletes which is also a record number (tied with 2013 and 2015).
  • Next up is Germany – 19 German Pros is also a record number and more than double than last year. Germany was in #4 four last year, they have clearly moved to take the #2 this year.
  • Last year, Australia and the United Kingdom were tied at nine athletes each, and not much has changed: Australia stayed the same, the British Pro team has grown by one athlete.
  • Switzerland has closed the gap to the top nations, with eight Pros in 2019 they have almost closed the gap to Australia.
  • There is a lot more movement for the smaller nations. In 2018 New Zealand had seven athletes in Kona, this year they have dropped down to three. The big mover is South Africa with an improvement from two athletes last year to five.

Kona Experience of the Pro Field

This section look at how the Kona field is changing over time.

First, a look at how often the Kona Pros have raced there before:

KonaExperience

This graph shows that there hasn’t been much change from last year. The men’s average of 3.30 races per starter continues to be at record levels. The corresponding female number (an average of 2.20 races per starter) is almost one race lower than that.

The next graph looks at what part of the field is athletes returning from the previous year’s race and which part consists of Kona rookies:

Returns Rookies

There is a bit more movement here:

  • The Return Rate for the men has dropped from 64% to just over fifty percent. At the same time, the segment of Kona rookies has grown to 25%, the highest number since 2015 when it was 33%.
  • The number of female rookies has reached a new record level: 16 rookies result in a rookies quota of 36%. Exactly half of the 2019 field has raced Kona 2018.

It’s not quite clear why these changes have happened, but it’s quite likely that the new qualifying system has played a role.

Age of the Kona Pros

Here’s a graph showing the age distribution of the Kona Pros (click for a hi-res version):

The youngest Pros racing in Kona are Daniel Baekkegard (23 years) and Nina Derron, Imo Simmonds and Lucy Charles-Barkley (26 years). Sue Huse and Daniel Fontana are the oldest.

It’s interesting to cross-reference this with the Age of Kona winners and some extra material for speculation.

Individual Athlete Kona Results

The following tables look at the results each Kona 2019 Pro athlete has had on the Big Island in previous years.

Female Participants

Athletes 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 # of Starts Highest Finish
Corinne Abraham 11 16 9 3 9
Jen Annett 25 1 25
Nikki Bartlett 0 of 1
Emma Bilham
Daniela Bleymehl 36 1 36
Lauren Brandon 26 1 of 2 26
Mirinda Carfrae 2 Win 2 3 Win Win 2 5 8 of 9 1
Lucy Charles-Barclay 2 2 2 2
Susie Cheetham 6 6 26 3 of 4 6
Linsey Corbin 23 5 11 12 16 8 10 12 13 13 10 11 of 12 5
Sarah Crowley 15 3 6 3 3
Nina Derron
Gurutze Frades Larralde 33 22 24 3 22
Anne Haug 3 1 3
Mareen Hufe 19 21 11 13 4 of 5 11
Sue Huse
Heather Jackson 5 3 4 14 4 3
Meredith Kessler 26 7 26 35 4 of 7 7
Martina Kunz
Carrie Lester 23 10 7 3 of 4 7
Kristin Liepold 17 15 25 26 4 15
Danielle Mack
Jocelyn McCauley 10 30 2 10
Skye Moench
Kimberley Morrison
Camilla Pedersen 8 11 2 of 3 8
Laura Philipp
Sarah Piampiano 23 7 7 11 4 of 5 7
Barbara Riveros
Daniela Ryf 2 Win Win Win Win 5 1
Kaisa Sali 5 5 7 3 5
Jeanni Seymour
Laura Siddall 15 17 2 15
Imogen Simmonds
Lesley Smith 0 of 1
Jennifer Spieldenner
Maja Stage Nielsen 12 15 2 12
Caroline Steffen 2 5 2 5 5 9 6 2
Bianca Steurer 28 1 28
Svenja Thoes
Sarah True 4 1 4
Els Visser
Annah Watkinson
Kelsey Withrow

Male Participants

Athletes 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 # of Starts Highest Finish
Bart Aernouts 11 8 9 8 12 2 6 of 7 2
Clemente Alonso McKernan 17 1 of 3 17
Josh Amberger 29 1 of 2 29
Daniel Baekkegard
Cody Beals
Andi Boecherer 51 8 21 20 5 5 of 6 5
Terenzo Bozzone 11 20 6 3 of 5 6
Alistair Brownlee
Kyle Buckingham 24 30 26 23 4 of 5 23
Will Clarke 41 42 2 41
Maurice Clavel 19 1 19
James Cunnama 51 4 26 5 17 5 of 6 4
Braden Currie 30 5 2 5
Mario De Elias
David Dellow 9 24 2 of 3 9
Tobias Drachler
Andreas Dreitz 13 1 13
Marc Duelsen 18 1 of 2 18
Daniel Fontana 12 33 2 of 5 12
Jan Frodeno 3 Win Win 35 4 1
Nils Frommhold 6 29 2 of 3 6
Joe Gambles 20 27 2 of 4 20
Matt Hanson 34 33 2 of 3 33
Ben Hoffman 55 42 15 2 27 4 9 7 of 8 2
Kristian Hogenhaug
Sebastian Kienle 4 3 Win 8 2 4 6 of 7 1
Philipp Koutny 15 1 15
Lukas Kraemer
Patrick Lange 3 Win Win 3 1
Chris Leiferman
Eneko Llanos 5 7 2 14 7 11 7 27 24 9 of 12 2
Franz Loeschke
David McNamee 11 13 3 3 4 3
Patrik Nilsson 8 1 of 2 8
Timothy O’Donnell 8 5 32 3 6 19 4 7 of 8 3
Kennett Peterson
Mike Phillips 16 1 16
David Plese 27 17 21 3 of 5 17
Andy Potts 7 9 21 17 7 4 4 11 7 8 10 4
Tim Reed 21 23 18 3 of 4 18
Matthew Russell 23 20 18 23 12 6 6 of 7 6
Lionel Sanders 14 29 2 28 4 2
Daniil Sapunov
Stefan Schumacher
Frank Silvestrin
Joe Skipper 13 41 7 3 7
Andrew Starykowicz 19 40 2 of 3 19
Boris Stein 20 10 7 10 4 7
Jesper Svensson
TJ Tollakson 29 58 32 38 20 5 of 7 20
Matt Trautman 0 of 1
Jan van Berkel 32 22 24 3 of 4 22
Tim Van Berkel 7 36 19 15 12 5 7
Cyril Viennot 15 18 12 5 6 18 35 7 of 8 5
Michael Weiss 25 13 16 16 32 10 6 of 8 10
Cameron Wurf 17 9 2 9

There’s going to be a lot more information about Kona and the Kona Pro field in my “Kona 2019 Rating Report” that you can already pre-order here.

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