The Multisport World Championships in Townsville, Australia are already in full swing. As always, the Long Distance Aquabike race will be the big final alongside the Triathlon. It will be the first long distance aquabike championship race outside Europe since the very first edition in 2017 in Pentincton, Canada.
Race the Reef is the slogan of the event. I’m not exactly sure if you’ll get to see some corals during the swim. But the coastal area in north-east Queensland certainly provides a worthy setting for the seventh edition of the World Triathlon Multisport Championships.
The Swim
The first wave of aquabike athletes will start the 3 km swim with a deepwater start at 07:35 in the morning – only five minutes after the last wave of triathletes. It’s a two lap swim with an Australian exit (of course). Which means that aquabike athletes will swim into a bunch of triathletes about 200 metres after the start. With the strongest aquabike agegroup (M 15 – 54) starting last, they’ll have quite some traffic to deal with. In the water as well as later on the bike.
According to race organizer average water temperature was measured yesterday (August 20th) with 22.8 °C. So, wetsuits are most likely to be allowed as the sea should not get much warmer over the next few days. The swim will be during low tide which peaks at 8:12 am that day, so there should be no issues with tidal currents whatsoever during the swim.
The Transition
Aquabike athletes will have their own aquabike dedicated transition zone after the swim. While triathletes have to run 400 metres from the beach to T1, the aquabike transition zone is only a very short run from the swim exit. Chapeau to the race organizer for this! As many aquabikers (especially the good swimmers) will exit the water in between a bunch of triathletes just make sure you follow the right path to get to the aquabike transition.
The Bike
The 38 km lap of the bike course is basically split in two parts. The first 24 km are quite technical whit a lot of corners and five U-turns. There is also a little climb which has to be tackled in both directions of the otherwise flat course. And a little part of that section also leads over the motor-racing track. The remaining 14 km are one long straight alongside the coast and back. If the wind comes in from the sea as forecasted there will be a steady wind from the side in both directions.
With almost 1000 triathletes and aquabikers on the bike course at the same time, drafting might be an issue – and maybe not easy to avoid all the time especially in the technical sections of the course. A little more time between the start times of triathletes and aquabikers, as at the European Championships in Coimbra, would certainly have been beneficial for the fairness of the race in both, the triathlon and the aquabike race.
The Finish
While last year’s world championship organizers in Ibiza ignored the World Triathlon competition rule and put the aquabike finish at the entry of the transition zone, aquabike athletes in Townsville will finish their race on the bike. But the finish line won’t be placed before athletes arrive at transition. Instead, there will be a separated, aquabike dedicated finish line. After triathletes take a left turn to get to their T2, aquabikers will have another kilometre to the finish. After two 90 degrees left turns, they will get on the 300 meters finishing straight. Might sounds like a safe setup in case of a sprint finish. However, there is a catch – in the form of a roundabout only about 40-50 metres before the finish line. It’s only a small roundabout which probably can be tackled in full speed without a problem – by one athlete. Two athletes next to each other sprinting might be a different story. So if you are battling with another athlete for a position, it would probably be safer to look for the decision a little beforehand instead of going for a sprint finish.
The good news: After the finish you can take your time to rack your bike in the transition area which will be placed right after the finish and can then make your way to the main finish line to get a decent finish line experience.
The Weather
The second edition of the Multisport World Championships outside Europe will certainly be a bit cooler than the first one, seven years ago in Canada. It’s winter in down under and Australian winter in Townsville turns out to be a bit colder than Canadian Summer in Pentincton. While athletes had to deal with temperatures of more than 30°C in 2017, expected temperatures in Townsville should be about 10 degrees lower at race start, rising to 27°C in early afternoon. While some forecasts show blue skies most of the day, others predict some light rain. Either way you will certainly have to deal with some wind coming in from the sea.
The Favourites
Seven years ago, only four athletes travelled all the way from continental Europe to Canada – two from Denmark and two from Germany. While there will be a few more athletes from Germany and other European countries this time around, athletes from Denmark will be missing. This might not only be due to the long travel distance but maybe also to the fact that the national championships in Denmark are scheduled for the very same day. However, while the majority of favourites in both, the men’s and the women’s race come from Australia, there will also be some athletes from Europe and the United States mixing up the top ranks.
The Men’s Race
Despite a whole bunch of strong athletes from Autralia and New Zealand, the main favourite of the race has to be 2022 Standard Distance World Champion Nigel Fanning. The Irishman living in Australia hasn’t competed in an aquabike race ever since but has shown strong performances in some shorter triathlon races earlier this year. We will see how those performances translate into a long distance aquabike race though.
Current leader of the Aquabike World Ranking Frank Erk will be competing in Townsville and has shown great form in some races this year, most notably taking 3rd place overall in the European Championships in Portugal.
Young US athlete Kieran Dolan should be able to represent the United States with dignity. The 18-year-old Californian finished 3rd overall in last year’s US long distance Championships at CLASH Daytona. He’s certainly one of the strongest swimmers in the field and will be hard to be followed in the Australian sea.
The strongest athletes from New Zealand will be Michael GLYNN, Charlie Taylor and Xander Marsh. While Michael has participated in world championships before, finishing 7th overall in Canada in 2017 and 13th overall last year in Ibiza, Charlie and Xander are new on the international stage of aquabike racing and we will see how their good results in races in their home country will translate to the big stage of a World Championship.
The same obviously also applies to quite a few athletes from Australia. Cristian SMITH took a clear win against strong competition in the Tweed Enduro in 2023. So did James THORP in the 2023 Challenge Canberra as well as in this year’s Ironman 70.3 Geelong, where he beat defending champion James Ogilvie, who also became Australian Aquabike Champion last year. Those three are probably the biggest favourites from down under. However, there is quite a long list of other athletes scoring top results in some of the big races in their home country, so we certainly could see some surprises here.
The Women’s Race
The woman to beat in the women’s aquabike race will be US athlete Felicity Joyce. After a second place overall in 2021 in Almere and a third place last year in Ibiza, Felicity will certainly have some ambition to climb up to the top of the podium this time. Another US athlete worth mentioning is Sarah Hess who finished just outside the top 10 in Ibiza last year.
Strongest European athlete competing down under will probably be Gabriele KECK from Germany who already has two top 10 placings in previous world championships under her belt.
An athlete who might could make a surprise appearance in the top ranks is young South African Harriet Trubshaw. Her only aquabike race was at the Joburg Ultra almost two years ago, where she showed a strong performance, finishing 3rd overall.
New Zealand will be represented by some female aquabike athletes who showed strong performances in races in big races their home country. Though none of them has yet shown an appearance in a world championship race, where they yet have to show if they can keep up with international competition. Amanda Woodd and Cat Conlan came in 2nd and 3rd in the Tauranga Half, while Lynaire Parish was runner up at the Challenge Wanaka this February.
And of course – just like in the men’s race – there are even more athletes from Australia with great results from big races in down under, who have not yet shown their strength in international aquabike races. The first one to mention is 2023 Australian aquabike champion Mercede Cornelius-Feltus. The standard distance race was the only aquabike race of the young Aussie athlete so far though. Kelly Phuah did her first aquabike race this March, when she finished 2nd at the Ironman 70.3 Geelong, ahead of Kate Gayner who will also compete in Townsville. Other Aussie girls who could also be up for the top ranks are Kim Bowling, Alison Whiteman and Marlize Bekker – but the list is actually quite a bit longer.
Unfortunately, I won’t be racing in Australia myself but will certainly follow the race with quite some excitement from the distance. Good luck to all aquabike athletes, have a great and safe race and enjoy your “Race at the reef”.
Some helpful links:
2024 Aquabike Long Distance World Championships Townsville Race Details