Who qualified for Kona at IRONMAN Ireland 2019?

The debut edition of IRONMAN Ireland, Cork, may have seen the epic weather conditions and a cancelled swim, but the revised Bike-Run format still saw 40 athletes qualify for the IRONMAN World Championships on Saturday 12th October 2019.

Those slots were accepted by athletes from 11 different nations. Irish athletes (8) topped the table by volume, with Great Britain next (7), followed by the Netherlands (5) and then Germany, Poland and USA (4 each).

Demand for Kona slots? You bet there is!

Reviewing the slot allocation would appear to confirm that qualifying for Kona is very highly sought after. The 40 slots were allocated as 11 to women, 29 to men, and the following table summarises that breakdown by age category – along with the lowest finishing position in that category who accepted a slot.

Category	Slots issued	Lowest Position to earn slot	Max rolldown
F18-24	1	1	0
F25-29	1	2	1
F30-34	1	1	0
F35-39	1	1	0
F40-44	2	2	0
F45-49	2	3	1
F50-54	1	2	1
F55-59	1	2	1
F60-64	1	3	2
M18-24	1	1	0
M25-29	2	3	1
M30-34	3	4	1
M35-39	4	4	0
M40-44	5	6	1
M45-49	5	5	0
M50-54	3	3	0
M55-59	2	3	1
M60-64	1	1	0
M65-59	1	3	2
M70-74	1	1	0
M75-79	1	1	0

What does that tell us? Well, taking the female slots first, in only one category (60-64), did the available slots roll more than one place (in this instance, one slot was available and it was accepted by the third placed finisher).

It’s a very similar picture for the men, with the 65-69 division the only one where the available slots rolled more than one place (again, the one slot was accepted by the third placed athlete).

(NOTE – it’s quite possible (I don’t know the specific athletes in this instance), that even this may be ‘over-stating’ the extent of the already limited rolldown, given that one or more of the athletes who declined a place may have already qualified at a previous race).

The categories with the largest slot allocations – and the finishing positions that accepted the available Kona slots were:

• M40-44: 5 Slots – 1st / 2nd / 4th / 5th / 6th
• M45-49: 5 Slots – 1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th / 5th
• M35-39: 5 Slots – 1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th

For historical Kona slot allocations at previous UK & Ireland IRONMAN events, check out these links:

• CLICK HERE for Kona Qualifiers history at IRONMAN Wales
• CLICK HERE for Kona Qualifiers history at IRONMAN UK

Kona Qualifiers: IRONMAN Ireland, Sunday 23rd June 2019

BIB	First Name	Last Name	Category	AG Position	Country	Bike	Run	Finish Time
150	Anna	Lawson	F18-24	1	GBR	06:15:26	03:24:18	09:43:43
510	Rosanne	De Boer	F25-29	2	NED	06:33:24	03:46:59	10:25:29
531	Jenna-Caer	Seefried	F30-34	1	CAN	06:08:13	03:36:24	09:49:51
564	Joanna	Butler	F35-39	1	POL	06:53:18	03:58:10	10:56:15
103	Anna	Wachtershauser	F40-44	1	GER	06:16:02	03:56:43	10:01:12
629	Mary	Corless	F40-44	2	IRL	06:20:32	04:04:12	10:33:01
300	Sheena	Dullaghan	F45-49	2	IRL	07:05:49	04:04:10	11:21:28
702	Fiona	Foley	F45-49	3	IRL	06:53:20	04:18:30	11:23:31
737	Beverley	Wells	F50-54	1	CAN	07:02:24	04:11:55	11:37:41
175	Karyn	Hoffman	F55-59	2	USA	07:46:58	05:30:09	12:28:28
760	Jean	Gillespie	F60-64	3	GBR	08:19:55	05:25:39	14:06:51
770	Adam	Nizio	M18-24	1	POL	05:57:23	03:42:56	09:46:01
181	Tom	Oosterdijk	M25-29	1	NED	05:09:17	03:00:41	08:12:48
797	Christopher	Pocock	M25-29	3	GBR	05:18:13	03:11:05	08:33:57
192	Tjebbe	Venema	M30-34	1	NED	05:09:40	03:02:06	08:14:27
113	Kristian	Ek	M30-34	3	SWE	05:09:37	03:19:10	08:32:01
111	Neils	Ros	M30-34	4	NED	05:16:18	03:15:50	08:37:31
1089	Daniel	McParland	M35-39	1	GBR	05:05:34	03:26:36	08:36:33
1075	Emmet	Kelly	M35-39	2	IRL	05:38:04	03:02:09	08:44:16
1102	Gillian	Oriet	M35-39	3	SUI	05:38:06	03:14:21	08:57:28
204	Marcin	Kepka	M35-39	4	POL	05:27:15	03:26:44	08:58:37
123	Maciej	Swinarski	M40-44	1	POL	05:39:25	03:28:44	09:13:59
1383	Felix	Leder	M40-44	2	GER	05:37:57	03:36:21	09:21:33
214	Marcel	Van Wees	M40-44	4	NED	05:34:18	03:51:54	09:31:48
473	Kevin	Fennessy	M40-44	5	IRL	05:45:53	03:38:55	09:33:04
1568	Jason	Corbett	M40-44	6	IRL	05:44:34	03:43:40	09:33:40
132	Roman	Lacko	M45-49	1	GBR	05:25:30	03:30:10	09:00:34
1726	Con	Ring	M45-49	2	IRL	05:39:28	03:25:28	09:09:42
1749	Daragh	Hendley	M45-49	3	IRL	05:50:11	03:31:44	09:28:12
343	Karl	Watts	M45-49	4	GBR	05:55:19	03:30:49	09:31:49
1812	Mark	Patterson	M45-49	5	GBR	05:37:30	03:52:56	09:38:37
137	Mans	Holom	M50-54	1	SWE	05:50:08	03:40:03	09:35:01
1898	Carsten	Umland	M50-54	2	GER	05:58:44	04:02:16	10:07:40
1921	Jorg	Kult	M50-54	3	GER	06:10:18	03:52:09	10:10:46
377	Gerhard	Mueller	M55-59	1	AUT	05:47:40	03:52:11	09:44:53
2048	Markus	Huber	M55-59	3	SUI	06:00:23	04:24:34	10:34:29
275	Jean-Luc	Miffand	M60-64	1	FRA	06:50:08	04:12:35	11:10:24
2144	James	Meehan	M65-59	3	USA	07:50:43	05:44:47	13:54:39
2148	Simon	Butterworth	M70-74	1	USA	07:01:07	05:45:36	12:51:19
145	Gennaro	Magliulo	M75-79	1	USA	07:33:32	06:09:33	14:19:08

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Athlete reactions to Kona qualification

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzGe3asBp4r/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzKrEO2h1BN/