Sub-9 hour iron women triathletes [UPDATED]

2017 Updates following IRONMAN South Africa 2017 (Daniela Ryf and Kaisa Lehtonen), IRONMAN Texas 2017 (Jodie Robertson and Michi Herlbauer), IRONMAN Cairns (Sarah Crowley), IRONMAN Brasil (Susie Cheetham, Sonja Tajsich and Hayley Chura), Challenge Roth (Daniela Ryf, Laura Siddall and Lisa Roberts), Challenge Regensburg (Diana Riesler). Challenge Almere (Yvonne van Vlerken), IRONMAN Barcelona (Van Vlerken, Huetthaler, Sammler, Konschak), IRONMAN Hawaii (Ryf and Charles), IRONMAN Arizona (Sali, Frederiksen, Annett) and IRONMAN Cozumel (Lisa Roberts and Kirsty Jahn).

2018 Updates: IRONMAN South Africa (Lucy Charles).

It was – and will continue to be – widely written and reported that Chrissie Wellington “re-wrote the record books” at Challenge Roth in 2010, recording a breathtaking time of 8:19:13 for the iron distance. A year later, she did it again!

Well, here is one of those “record books”, and it too has been re-written once again.

Number of sub-nine hour ladies iron-distance finishes?

Sport and numbers seem to be a perfect marriage. Whatever your sport, or whatever your ability, sooner or later you’ll invariably be creating targets based on time. Whether that’s making the 17-hour Ironman cut-off, running a sub-three hour marathon or beating 25 minutes in your club ’10’, everyone likes to break a barrier and set a personal best.

And, following the excitement from Quelle Challenge Roth (2009), and the fantastic world best figures of Chrissie Wellington, I thought it was a great opportunity to look, in depth, at ladies iron-distance performances. Recording a ‘sub-nine’ (hours) time for ladies, is a natural goal for many of the elite athletes in our sport, (just as going ‘sub-eight‘ is for men), but, how often has it been done?

I didn’t know. I researched extensively, and as far as I could see, nobody else knew either. I even found websites dedicated to this very subject – and realised I knew more than them anyway!

And so, it started… many hours of head-scratching, web surfing and historic magazine research – too many hours! – and I realised, not quickly enough, that I’d embarked on an “I’d started, so I had to finish mission”. This definitely comes with a ‘don’t try this at home’ warning. But I digress.

What follows is a result of that mission. Should you think I’ve missed any, please send me the details (editor@tri247.com), as my aim is to create the definitive list of sub-nine hour female iron distance finishes. The only downside of all of this work? I then had to do the same task for the sub-eight hour men!

As at 15th April 2018, 74 women have now finished an iron-distance triathlon with an 8:XX:XX clocking, and we now have 172 sub-9 female finishes recorded.

Sub-Nine Hour Female Iron Distance Finishes

Fastest Female Iron Distance Athletes (Best Time Only)

Athlete & Race Analysis

Commentary

Not surprisingly, Roth wins in terms of course speed. Thirty four sub-nine’s in the past ten races (2008-2017), 41 in total, the four fastest times ever plus six of the top-10…

However Ironman Austria (Klagenfurt) comes closest now with 22 following the 2016 edition. Roth was also the venue of the first ever sub-nine clocking from Thea Sybesma (NED) in 1991, in what at the time was ‘Ironman Europe’.

Following Chrissie’s quite staggering performances at Roth 2009, Roth in 2010 and Roth 2011, added to her figures from Ironmans Arizona and South Africa, Chrissie held the five fastest iron-distance times ever.

Those top five times, along with her Kona course record (2009) were all achieved in consecutive races…which she followed up with arguably her greatest performance ever at the 2011 Ironman World Championships, even if it wasn’t (quite!) a Kona record. Quite a form line.

Want some more Chrissie stats? 2011 was the second time (2009 being the first) that Chrissie has achieved three sub-nine hour finishes in one year.

Indeed, you have to go back to Kona 2008 for the last time Chrissie didn’t finish with 8:XX on the clock – and that was the year that she spent 10+ minutes on the side of the road with a puncture… and still won with a finish time of 9:06:23. It’s now eight consecutive sub-nine finishes 2009-2011 inclusive (and nine in total). Raising the bar for sure – though no more following Chrissie’s Ironman retirement.

In 2008, Chrissie Wellington received much comment about celebrating ‘too much’ on the run-in to the line in Frankfurt, and thus missing the then world best of Paula Newby-Fraser (8:50:53).

Things have moved on so quickly that Chrissie’s 8:51:24 from that race doesn’t even make the top-50 now anyway – and following Daniela Ryf’s 2015 efforts, it isn’t even the course record any longer!

The performance of Cat Morrison at Roth 2009 was surpassed by Mary Beth Ellis as the fastest debut iron-distance performance following her Klagenfurt 2011 win (8:43:35).

That said, Eva Wutti’s 8:37:36 at Ironman Copenhagen 2013 was her first Ironman finish – but not technically a debut, having been a DNF earlier in the year at Ironman Austria.

Eva has since added a second entry to this listing with another win, this time at Challenge Barcelona 2013 (8:51:01), a third at the same race (this time under ‘Ironman Barcelona’ branding) to defend that title a year later in a new course record of 8:49:21 – and now a fourth on home soil at Ironman Austria 2015.

American Krista Whelen missed out on this list my just one second – she recorded nine hours exactly in 1992 at Roth. Ironically, for 17 years her bike time of 4:45:59 that day was the fastest women’s Ironman bike split – smashed by Chrissie with a 4:40:28 at Roth 2009, and then again (4:36:33) in 2010.

Chrissie’s marathon (2:48:54) was also a world’s best… until 10th July 2011 when she improved that yet again to 2:44:35. That bike mantle has now been taken by Caroline Steffen though, her 4:35:29 (Melbourne 2012) is now the gold standard, though Yvonne Van Vlerken was just 20 seconds short of that at Ironman Florida 2013. All change following Roth 2016 – Daniela Ryf producing a stunning 4:31:29 bike split. That, is, fast.

Yvonne Van Vlerken recorded her first sub-9 clocking for more than four years when winning Ironman Florida 2012, which was the fourth time she has achieved that, leaving her tied for third place (with Paula Newby Fraser) behind Chrissie Wellington (nine) and Rebekah Keat (five) in the “most sub-9 finishes” all-time list.

Not content with that, Yvonne came within seconds of her own PB figures while finishing second to Caroline Steffen at Challenge Roth 2013 (8:46:22) to join Rebekah Keat on five sub-nine’s, only to then recorded her best ever time (8:43:07) when winning Ironman Florida 2013, just weeks after taking fourth place at Kona.

That was six, but with Challenge Roth 2014 (8:59:36) and now Melbourne 2015, Yvonne Van Vlerken was just one short of Chrissie’s record, with eight sub-nine finishes to her name. No longer… as another Challenge Roth victory in 2015 means that Yvonne now pulled level with Chrissie, only to become the first woman into double figures with her tenth sub-nine finish at Ironman Barcelona 2015. She is showing no signs of stopping and went to eleven following Challenge Roth 2016, twelve at Ironman Arizona 2016, 13 at Challenge Almere-Amsterdam and 14 at Ironman Barcelona!

Erika Csomor made it three sub-nine clocking’s at Ironman Austria 2011 (and added a fourth in 2013 at the same event…. and then a fifth at Ironman Florida!), while Gina Crawford (née Ferguson) made it three for her at Challenge Roth 2012 and four at Ironman Frankfurt 2014.

Rachel Joyce achieved her third at Ironman Texas 2013 a fourth at the Ironman World Champs 2013 and a fifth at Challenge Roth 2014, where third placed Caroline Steffen has matched her with five. (One ‘might’ (!) argue that it should/could be six – but her win at Ironman Cozumel in 2013 was on a shortened swim course due to sea conditions).

Steffen sat alone in third place in the ‘most Sub-9’s’ with six, following her third place in Melbourne 2015.

The 36th name to join the ‘Sub-9 Club’ was Lucie Reed, Challenge Barcelona 2013 (second place, 8:57:34), with the 37th member Ashley Clifford with second place (8:49:03) at Ironman Florida 2013.

Members 38 and 39 came via Ironman Arizona 2013 via Meredith Kessler (second place, 8:55:47) and Michelle Vesterby (third, 8:57:24). Elizabeth Lyles, winner Ironman Western Australia 2013 was the 40th time on the list while more recent additions are (#41), Kelly Williamson courtesy of a win (8:54:42) at Ironman Texas 2014 and (#42), Sara Gross at Ironman Brasil (8:56:35).

Ironman Austria 2014 added four more names. While Linsey Corbin won in 8:42:42 (a PB time, and her second Sub-9, currently ranked as the 12th fastest time on record), positions two thru five in that race saw four more Sub-9 club members in Simone Brändli  (#43), Lisa Hütthaler (#44), Sofie Goos (#45) and Michi Herlbauer (#46).

The very latest additions to the listing is include yet another fast British athlete, as Corinne Abraham’s 8:52:40 at Ironman Frankfurt makes her member #47.

Behind her, Gina Crawford (her fourth) and Elizabeth Lyles (her second), added to their totals. Member #48 goes to Daniela Ryf, thanks to her 8:53:33 and second Ironman victory, at Ironman Copenhagen 2014, #49 is Angela Naeth (Ironman Chattanooga 2014), #50 is Britta Martin, winner at Ironman Western Australia 2014 and the latest new names from 2015 are, #51, Melissa Hauschildt (Melbourne), #52, Ariane Moniticeli (Brazil), #53, Carrie Lester (Roth), #54, Anja Beranek (Roth), #’s 55-57 (Kaisa Lehtonen, Elisabeth Gruber and Eimear Mullan) at Ironman Barcelona and #58 is Amanda Stevens (Arizona).

Athlete #59 and #60 to this list (Laura Siddall (Roth 2016) and Astrid Stienen (Barcelona 2016) are both ‘first timers’ in 2016, while #61 is Malindi Elmore (CAN) at Ironman Arizona 2016, with Mareen Hufe and Sarah Piampiano (both Ironman Western Australia), members #62 and #63 respectively.

Something new – Daniela Ryf becomes the first female athlete to break the 9-hour barrier twice in a week, following Challenge Roth and Ironman Switzerland. Would that impact her efforts in Kona – not at all, as she went on to break the course record and defend her title in Hawaii.

Following Ironman South Africa 2017 she now had seven career sub-nine hour finishes – now up to eight at Challenge Roth 2017.

After winning Ironman Texas, Jodie Robertson joined the Sub-9 Club as member #64, with Michi Herlbauer recording her third 8:XX for second place.

Members #65 and #66 are Susie Cheetham (winner) and Haley Chura (third) at IRONMAN Brasil, while second placed Sonja Tajsich (GER) recorded her third 8:XX finish in Florianopolis. Sarah Crowley (AUS) won IRONMAN Cairns (Asia-Pacific Champs), to become member #67 of the Sub-9 Club. The latest addition (#68), is Lisa Roberts courtesy of third place at Challenge Roth 2017 – a race in which Laura Siddall set a PB, improving on her figures from 12 months previously on what was widely regarded as a much tougher new run course.

Member #69 is Daniela Sammler and #70 is Katja Konschak, both at the IRONMAN Barcelona 2017.

While Daniela Ryf racked up her ninth career Sub-9 finish when winning a third consecutive IRONMAN World Championship, Great Britain’s Lucy Charles joined the Sub-9 Club as member #71 thanks to her brilliant second place finish. What’s more, she is part of a select club of just six athletes to have finished with an 8:XX time in Kona.

Member #72 (Helle Frederiksen) and #73 (Jen Annett) joined the Sub-9 Club at IRONMAN Arizona 2017, where they finished second and third respectively behind Kaisa Sali (FIN), who won with her third career 8:XX finish.

Tri247 Iron-Distance Statistics Library

• Sub-9 iron ladies: a history
  the definitive list of sub-nine hour female iron distance finishes
• Sub-8 iron men: a history
  the definitive list of sub-eight hour male iron distance finishes
• British Ironman success: Ladies
  the definitive record of Ironman® podium finishes by British female athletes
• British Ironman success: Men
  the definitive record of Ironman® podium finishes by British male athletes
• British & Irish Iron Distance Records
  the fastest ironman distance times achieved for England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales
• Fastest British Iron Ladies
  every sub-nine hour 15 minute iron-distance finish by British female athletes ever recorded.
• Fastest British Iron Men
  every sub-eight hour 30 minute iron-distance finish by British male (and female…) athletes ever recorded
• The Fastest British Athletes at the IRONMAN World Championships, Hawaii
  A complete listing of every sub 8:45 finish (Male) and sub 9:30 finish (Female) from British athletes in Kona

Do you believe there is a performance missing here? If so, please do let me know via editor@tri247.com.