2008 Ironman World Championship

The 2008 Ford Ironman World Championship was held on October 11, 2008 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. It was the 32nd such Ironman Triathlon World Championship, which has been held annually in Hawaii since 1978. The champions were Craig Alexander and Chrissie Wellington. The championship was organised by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC).

Medallists

Men

Pos.	Time (h:mm:ss)	Name	Country	Split times (h:mm:ss)
				Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run
	8:17:45	Craig Alexander	Australia	51:43	1:41	4:37:19	2:04	2:45:01
	8:20:50	Eneko Llanos	Spain	51:39	1:48	4:33:27	2:10	2:51:49
	8:21:23	Rutger Beke	Belgium	54:44	1:50	4:34:45	2:16	2:47:49
4	8:21:46	Ronnie Schildknecht	Switzerland	54:56	1:58	4:34:26	2:08	2:48:20
5	8:26:17	Cameron Brown	New Zealand	51:50	2:04	4:36:47	1:59	2:53:39
6	8:30:23	Patrick Vernay	New Caledonia	51:58	1:52	4:42:49	2:06	2:51:40
7	8:33:50	Andy Potts	United States	48:40	1:48	4:46:00	2:51	2:54:31
8	8:34:02	Mathias Hecht	Switzerland	51:42	1:46	4:36:55	2:28	3:01:13
9	8:34:47	Michael Lovato	United States	52:58	1:52	4:45:21	2:27	2:52:12
10	8:36:53	Eduardo Sturla	Argentina	54:47	2:02	4:34:27	2:20	3:03:19
Source:[1]

Women

Pos.	Time (h:mm:ss)	Name	Country	Split times (h:mm:ss)
				Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run
	9:06:23	Chrissie Wellington	Great Britain	56:20	2:06	5:08:16	1:59	2:57:44
	9:21:20	Yvonne van Vlerken	Netherlands	1:06:49	1:50	5:05:34	2:42	3:04:27
	9:22:52	Sandra Wallenhorst	Germany	1:03:21	2:33	5:14:57	3:28	2:58:36
4	9:24:49	Erika Csomor	Hungary	59:09	2:19	5:18:12	2:06	3:03:05
5	9:28:51	Linsey Corbin	United States	1:00:35	2:22	5:14:33	2:07	3:09:16
6	9:29:15	Virginia Berasategui	Spain	58:50	2:10	5:22:17	2:12	3:03:48
7	9:34:08	Bella Comerford	Great Britain	59:02	2:27	5:21:46	2:25	3:08:31
8	9:36:53	Gina Ferguson	New Zealand	54:45	2:15	5:26:29	2:07	3:11:19
9	9:37:06	Gina Kehr	United States	54:45	2:00	5:21:46	4:02	3:14:36
10	9:39:53	Dede Griesbauer	United States	54:52	2:06	5:20:52	2:48	3:19:17
Source:[1]

The championship race had a total of 1,731 athletes competing (1,256 men and 475 women) from 51 countries started the race with 1,634 finished, 94 did not finish and 3 were disqualified.^[2] A maximum temperature of 81.6 °F (27.6 °C) made for warm racing conditions with wind gusts reaching 13.0 mph (20.9 km/h).

Qualification

To enter for the 2008 World Championship race, athletes were required to qualify through performance at an Ironman or selected Ironman 70.3 race, through Hawaii residency, through a random allocation lottery, or by invitation from the WTC.

The Ironman 2008 Series consisted of 21 Ironman qualifying races plus the Ironman World Championship 2008 which was itself a qualifier for the 2009 Ironman World Championship. The series started with Ironman Wisconsin 2007 held on September 9, 2007, and in total 1,800 athletes qualified for the World Championship race.

Qualifying Ironmans

Date	Event	Location
Sep 9, 2007	Ford Ironman Wisconsin	Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Oct 13, 2007	Ford Ironman World Championship	Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, United States
Nov 3, 2007	Ford Ironman Florida	Panama City Beach, Florida, United States
Dec 2, 2007	Ironman Western Australia	Busselton, Western Australia, Australia
Feb 23, 2008	Ironman Malaysia	Langkawi, Malaysia
Mar 1, 2008	Ironman New Zealand	Taupō, New Zealand
Apr 6, 2008	Ironman Australia	Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia
Apr 13, 2008	Ironman South Africa	Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa
Apr 13, 2008	Ford Ironman Arizona	Tempe, Arizona, United States
Apr 20, 2008	Ironman China	Hainan Island, China
May 24, 2008	Ironman Lanzarote	Puerto del Carmen, Lanzarote, Spain
May 25, 2008	Ironman Brazil	Florianópolis Island, Brazil
Jun 22, 2008	Ironman France	Nice, France
Jun 22, 2008	Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene	Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, United States
Jul 6, 2008	Ironman Germany	Frankfurt, Germany
Jul 13, 2008	Ironman Austria	Klagenfurt, Austria
Jul 13, 2008	Ironman Switzerland	Zürich, Switzerland
Jul 20, 2008	Ironman Lake Placid	Lake Placid, New York, United States
Aug 24, 2008	Ironman Canada	Penticton, British Columbia, Canada
Aug 31, 2008	Ironman Louisville	Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Sep 7, 2008	Ironman UK	Sherborne, Dorset, United Kingdom

There were 33,769 recorded Ironman finishing times during the 2008 series, with the fastest time of 7:59:55 set by Chris McCormack in the Ironman European Championship 2008.^[3]

2008 Ironman Series results

Men

Event	Gold	Time	Silver	Time	Bronze	Time	Reference
Wisconsin	Maik Twelsiek (GER)	8:52:49	Paul Fritzsche (USA)	9:03:22	Uzziel Valderrabano (MEX)	9:06:05	[4]
World Champs 07	Chris McCormack (AUS)	8:15:34	Craig Alexander (AUS)	8:19:04	Torbjørn Sindballe (DEN)	8:21:30	[5]
Florida	Stephan Vuckovic (GER)	8:21:29	Sergio Marques (POR)	8:23:49	Bryan Rhodes (NZL)	8:26:52	[6]
Western Australia	Patrick Vernay (NCL)	8:06:00	Raynard Tissink (RSA)	8:09:20	Mitchell Anderson (AUS)	8:12:20	[7]
Malaysia	Faris Al-Sultan (GER)	8:34:42	Petr Vabrousek (CZE)	9:04:54	Elmar Schuberth (AUT)	9:06:03	[8]
New Zealand	Cameron Brown (NZL)	8:24:49	Frederik Van Lierde (BEL)	8:31:35	Kieran Doe (NZL)	8:33:35	[9]
Australia	Patrick Vernay (NCL)	8:31:33	Mitchell Anderson (AUS)	8:40:19	Mathias Hecht (SUI)	8:42:48	[10]
South Africa	Stephen Bayliss (GBR)	8:18:23	Raynard Tissink (RSA)	8:23:09	Peter Schoissengeier (AUT)	8:33:24	[11]
Arizona	Jozsef Major (HUN)	8:34:19	T. J. Tollakson (USA)	8:34:36	Jordan Rapp (USA)	8:35:04	[12]
China	Olaf Sabatschus (GER)	8:52:14	Byung Hoon Park (KOR)	9:13:15	Timothy Marr (USA)	9:14:17	[13]
Lanzarote	Bert Jammaer (BEL)	8:59:37	Teemu Toivanen (FIN)	9:08:15	Ain-Alar Juhanson (EST)	9:08:36	[14]
Brazil	Eduardo Sturla (ARG)	8:28:24	Olaf Sabatschus (GER)	8:38:56	Sanson Benjamin (FRA)	8:41:32	[15]
France	Marcel Zamora Perez (ESP)	8:34:18	Hervé Faure (FRA)	8:41:55	Patrick Bringer (FRA)	8:45:15	[16]
Coeur d'Alene	Tom Evans (CAN)	8:34:22	Victor Zyemtsev (USA)	8:43:56	Michael Lovato (USA)	8:48:22	[17]
Germany	Chris McCormack (AUS)	7:59:55	Eneko Llanos (ESP)	8:00:49	Timo Bracht (GER)	8:04:16	[18]
Austria	Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL)	8:06:11	Stephen Bayliss (GBR)	8:13:53	Hannes Hempel (AUT)	8:16:56	[19]
Switzerland	Ronnie Schildknecht (SUI)	8:16:05	Stefan Reisen (SUI)	8:32:10	Frank Vytrisal (GER)	8:40:53	[20]
Lake Placid	Francisco Pontano (ESP)	8:43:32	Petr Vabrousek (CZE)	8:55:20	Mathias Hecht (SUI)	8:56:33	[21]
Canada	Bryan Rhodes (NZL)	8:30:12	Bernard Hiebl (AUT)	8:34:34	Jasper Blake (CAN)	8:36:08	[22]
Louisville	Maximilian Longree (GER)	8:33:58	Chris McDonald (AUS)	8:54:52	Sergio Marques (POR)	8:59:15	[23]
UK	Stephen Bayliss (GBR)	8:53:58	Scott Neyedli (GBR)	9:04:29	Andreas di Bernardo (AUT)	9:08:24	[24]

Women

Event	Gold	Time	Silver	Time	Bronze	Time	Reference
Wisconsin	Gina Ferguson (NZL)	9:37:03	Hilary Biscay (USA)	10:01:30	Ina Reinders (GER)	10:03:39	[4]
World Champs 07	Chrissie Wellington (GBR)	9:08:45	Samantha McGlone (USA)	9:14:04	Kate Major (USA)	9:19:13	[5]
Florida	Nina Kraft (GER)	9:05:35	Heleen bij de Vaate (NED)	9:07:40	Tyler Stewart (USA)	9:09:18	[6]
Western Australia	Charlotte Paul (AUS)	9:00:55	Gina Ferguson (NZL)	9:08:23	Bella Comerford (GBR)	9:14:25	[7]
Malaysia	Belinda Granger (AUS)	9:29:21	Yvonne van Vlerken (NED)	9:35:46	Yasuko Miyazaki (JPN)	10:14:01	[8]
New Zealand	Joanna Lawn (NZL)	9:16:00	Kate Bevilaqua (AUS)	9:20:06	Emi Shiono (JPN)	9:23:26	[9]
Australia	Chrissie Wellington (GBR)	9:03:55	Kate Major (USA)	9:09:12	Prue Oswin (AUS)	10:00:11	[10]
South Africa	Bella Comerford (GBR)	9:27:48	Edith Niederfriniger (ITA)	9:27:53	Lucie Zelenková (CZE)	9:34:09	[11]
Arizona	Erika Csomor (HUN)	9:14:49	Michellie Jones (USA)	9:25:52	Heather Gollnick (USA)	9:32:07	[12]
China	Belinda Granger (AUS)	10:08:37	Donna Phelan (CAN)	10:37:11	Abigail Bayley (GBR)	10:43:11	[13]
Lanzarote	Bella Comerford (GBR)	10:02:27	Heleen bij de Vaate (NED)	10:12:07	Tara Norton (CAN)	10:13:16	[14]
Brazil	Fernanda Keller (BRA)	9:42:50	Hillary Biscay (USA)	9:56:08	Ladislava Cisarovska (CZE)	10:06:10	[15]
France	Martina Dogana (ITA)	9:35:29	Katja Schumacher (GER)	10:00:59	Alexandra Louison (FRA)	10:03:46	[16]
Coeur d'Alene	Heather Wurtele (CAN)	9:38:58	Heather Gollnick (USA)	9:50:34	Tiina Boman (FIN)	9:55:28	[17]
Germany	Chrissie Wellington (GBR)	8:51:24	Nicole Leder (GER)	9:17:26	Wenke Kujala (GER)	9:24:54	[18]
Austria	Sandra Wallenhorst (GER)	8:47:26	Bella Comerford (GBR)	8:51:17	Edith Niederfriniger (ITA)	8:59:45	[19]
Switzerland	Sibylle Matter (SUI)	9:30:12	Kathrin Pätzold (GER)	9:35:05	Caroline Steffen (SUI)	9:37:24	[20]
Lake Placid	Caitlin Shea-Kenney (USA)	9:51:00	Kim Loeffler (USA)	9:54:55	Hillary Biscay (USA)	9:58:45	[21]
Canada	Belinda Granger (AUS)	9:17:58	Alison Fitch (AUS)	9:26:15	Heather Wurtele (CAN)	9:39:51	[22]
Louisville	Mariska Kramer-Postma (NED)	9:54:17	Heather Gollnick (USA)	9:56:53	Lisbeth Kristensen (DEN)	9:58:33	[23]
UK	Bella Comerford (GBR)	9:49:06	Heike Funk (GER)	10:24:40	Susanne Buckenlei (GER)	10:28:41	[24]