The statistics in the second part of our season review already showed a significant growth of aquabike racing all around the world. This also becomes clear when you look at the starter numbers for the biggest races in 2023. Out of the ten biggest races in the history of aquabike racing no less than four took place last year. Other than in 2022 the world championships were the biggest races of the year, both with more than 300 finishers. We also had quite big fields of aquabike athletes at the US and European Championships. But there were also impressive numbers in some non-championship races around the world.

Aquabike long distance races with the biggest number of finishers in 2023

There aren´t as many long distance aquabike races and apart from the championships, they don’t usually have very large numbers of competing athletes. Obviously the world championships are the big exception here. However, we had 22 long distance races in 2023, compared to 16 in the previous season. And even if we exclude the 2023 world championships – which have been a half distance race in 2022 – the average number of finishers of the top 10 long distance races almost doubled. Good to see that more and more aquabike athletes are also tackling the longer races.

Half distance aquabike races with most finishers in 2023

The European Championships in Belgium have been clearly the biggest middle distance aquabike race in 2023. But despite the for many athletes rather inconvenient date in December there were also almost 200 aquabikers showing up at the US nationals at the CLASH Daytona. It´s also good to see the fast-growing numbers at the Australian Championships. After 118 finishers in 2022 we had 167 aquabike athletes finishing the race in Huskisson last February. What also seems quite remarkable are the two big races in France, which are by far the most popular aquabike races which are neither championship nor qualification races.

Standard distance aquabike races with most finishers in 2023

Not a big surprise that the world championships and the US national championships are leading the board of the most popular standard distance races. It´s also not surprising that the three UK qualifiers for the world championships attract quite some aquabike athletes. What is very pleasing, however, is the growth of all these races compared to 2022. While the number of competing athletes at the world´s almost doubled – which of course is also due to the for many athletes more convenient date and location in 2023 – the US nationals had a growth of about 12%, with the UK qualifiers growing by almost 30% compared to 2022!

Sprint distance aquabike races with most finishers in 2023

Like in 2022 the Irish national championships at the Fingal Skerries Aquabike have been the biggest sprint distance race last year. This time though they don´t have to share the title after the number of competing aquabike athletes almost doubled! Despite many sprint distance races do not have a big number of aquabike athletes at the start line there were some races in the US with quite some growth compared to the previous season. And also the second edition of the national championships over the sprint distance in Poland made it into the top 10, despite taking place the day after the middle distance championships.

In the fifth and last part of our season review we will take a look at the closest race finishes and the clearest wins of the 2023 aquabike racing season. Stay tuned!