2026 results will be added to this article after the race (race day: 1 November 2026).
The field: the peak and after
In 2015, 860 age-group athletes finished. The smallest field was 481 in 2016, the peak 1,507 in 2021. 2025 had 1,156 finishers. The share of women stayed between 14.0% and 17.8%.
A different race every year
The average swim was 34:39 in 2015 and 44:48 in 2017, a gap of 10.2 minutes. It does not come from the field alone: the 117 athletes who raced both years averaged 35:26 and 43:18.
The slowest average bike was in 2015 (29.2 km/h), the fastest in 2021 (34.1 km/h). The 68 athletes who raced both years averaged 2:55:46 and 2:27:16.
The results list cannot tell us why: it could be the sea, the wind or the course, and the source does not say. It is worth remembering when you compare times across years.
Returning athletes are faster
In 2025, the 321 athletes who had finished this race before averaged 5:16:31; the 830 first-time finishers averaged 5:33:36, a gap of 17.1 minutes.
The 123 athletes who finished in at least 5 years were on average 27.6 minutes faster in their last year than in their first; 73.2% got faster. That figure is somewhat flattering: those who slowed down and stopped are not in this group, and first and last years were not raced in the same conditions.
The regulars
About 8,526 different athletes finished in 11 years; 79.0% did so only once. 1,788 finished in at least two years, 123 in at least five. The most is 10 years: Adam Kupiec, Ahmet Berber, Mania Maria Bikof, Onur Yavuz, Ruso Yakimovic and Vojtech Spisak. Nobody finished in all 11.
A race in Türkiye, a field from everywhere
Among finishers with a country in the source, the number of countries went from 42 in 2016 to 82 in 2025. The share from Türkiye was 55.1% in 2016 and 18.5% in 2025. The three largest countries in 2025: Türkiye, United Kingdom and Kazakhstan.
One note: since 2022, between 227 and 296 finishers a year have no country in the source, and the shares leave them out. Russia was in the top three until 2021, and not since.