2023 started with the transition from Aquabike.Events which was focused on Europe only, to Aquabike.World – the worldwide platform for the aquabike community that we have today. Maybe we could contribute a little bit to the development of this beautiful multisport discipline. Because in 2023 we had more than 1.000 aquabike races worldwide – 1.053 to be precise – in no less than 30 different countries.
You will see some more record-breaking numbers in the second part of our season review. In this first part we´ll take a look at how the champoinship races and some other big races of the season went.
The first national championship race was held on February 12th in New Zealand at the Kinloch Triathlon where Liam MILLER and Angie KEEN took the first titles of the season.
A week later we had a comeback of aquabike racing in a country on the other side of the Pacific. The Mercuryman on the Cayman Islands hosted one of the first aquabike races outside the US and Canada back in 2013. After a break of a few years the race returned to the calendar last season.
The Husky Triathlon Festival hosted the Australian aquabike championships for the third consecutive year. The number of finishers over those years show how aquabike is gaining quite some momentum in Down Under. After 83 athletes finished the first national championships in 2021, there were 118 finishers in 2022 and no less than 167 in 2023. James OGILVIE and Mercede CORNELIUS-FELTUS both took the win in their first – and until today only – aquabike race. But maybe we´ll see them at the world championships in Townsville this August, which are certainly one of the reasons for the growth of aquabike in Australia. Let´s hope that athletes and race organizers will remain faithful to this multisport discipline even after the big event.
On the same weekend a new country on the aquabike aquabike race calendar appeared – a country you probably wouldn´t expect. Triton Sports Events organized their first indoor aquabike race in Odessa, Ukraine . The Triton Aquabike became a whole race series this winter. We´ll keep our fingers crossed that Ukrainian aquabike athletes will soon get the chance to have their first race out on the road.
The biggest race on the 2023 US aquabike calendar came quite early. The national championships over the standard distance were held on the 22nd of April in Irving, Texas. Just as in Australia two aquabike newbies took the titles. While it remained the only aquabike race of the men´s champion Benjamin STONE until today, the fastest woman Stephanie OECHSNER also took the title at the long course championships at CLASH Daytona in December. The men´s race in Daytona was won by Dani RODRIGUEZ – another first timer. I hope we´ll see those strong athletes in some more aquabike races in 2024.
Two weeks later the long-distance world championships took place in Spain . Four years after his first title it was Frenchman Mathieu DUMONT who took the overall win after another impressive performance on the bike. After almost four hours of racing Cesar PEREIRA DEL PINO came in only 21 seconds behind with the bronze medallist Kurt HOLT following only half a minute later. In the women´s race it was another newcomer who was the fastest. Katrín PÁLSDÓTTIR took the title from defending champion Amber SMOLIK. The two fastest women distanced the rest of the field by more than 13 minutes when Felicity JOYCE was the one who came in next to take the third spot on the podium. The winning girl from Iceland probably won´t have many chances to compete in aquabike races in her home country. But would be great to see her again on the international stage. If you want to read more about the race and how it unfolded check out our race report.
Unfortunately, the strong aquabike athletes from Belgium were missing at the World´s in Ibiza. They had their national championships the very same day where Niels VANHOVE and Bernadette GOETHALS took the men´s and the women´s titles.
Only one week after the long-distance world championships in Ibiza, the Spanish long distance national championships took place at the Tradeinn International Triathlon on the Costa Brava. The men´s title was taken by Ignacio ALCANTARA GARVIA, while in the women´s race 2022 runner up Laura MARTINEZ BUCARDO managed to climb up one more step on the podium in 2023.
With more time to recover a much bigger field of aquabike athletes showed up at the middle-distance championships in June at the Triatlón Salamanca. Ángel Ramón RUÍZ LÓPEZ was the fastest man that day, with the women´s title taken by Rocío MUÑOZ FUERTES.
In 2022 Poland was the first country to schedule aquabike championships over four different distances. After the middle-distance race had to be cancelled that year it was the first time in 2023 that all four championships races took place. The first one was over the middle distance at the Susz Triathlon on July 1st with the sprint distance championships following the very next day. Despite the short recovery time Piotr ŁAZARONEK was able to win both men´s races, while Dorota KUETTEL took both of the women´s titles. In August Rafał PRENDECKI and Marysia MATUSIK were crowned national champions over the standard distance at the Elemental Tri Series Białystok. Two weeks later the long distance championships took place at the Castle Triathlon Malbork where Marek MARKOWSKI and Ola KORULCZYK won the gold medals.
Poland´s southern neighbour Slovakia also had their national championships on the first weekend of July. Branislav KRÁL was the fastest man that day, while Alena SINAY took the women´s national title.
And there was another noteworthy race that day a few more kilometres to the west. The Ch´Tri in the north of France hosted the biggest non-championship and non-qualification aquabike race – not only that year, but in the whole history of aquabike racing. 150 athletes finished the race. Fastest of them was Germany´s Frank ERK, fastest female finisher of the quite international field of athletes was Perrine PHILIPPE from France.
Two weeks later we had the national championships in Ireland . Despite Ireland being the European country with the longest history of national aquabike championship, the athlete´s feedback suggested that there was still a bit of room for improvement regarding the organization of the event. However, it was Philip CASTLES who took the men´s title at the Fingal Skerries Aquabike while Maeve GALLAGHER was the fastest woman of the race.
On the 27th of August the European Championships took place in Menen, Belgium. After becoming World Champion in May Mathieu DUMONT also showed his strength in Flanders, taking the title ahead of Denmark´s Tommy NIELSEN and Frank ERK. With the places one and three the women´s podium was dominated by athletes from Switzerland when Carole PERROT won her very first aquabike race. Isabel GEERARDYN won the silver medal on home soil ahead of former World Champion Sara BAUMANN.
It was probably due to the quite late announcement of the date of the European Championships that Denmark also held their national championships the same day. While former national champion Tommy Nielsen became vice European champion in Belgium, former vice world champion Eskild EBBESEN won his first national aquabike title. Second athlete to cross the finishline was fastest woman Anna DAMGAARD ERIKSEN.
A week later Miro KREGAR took the national title in Slovenia . The fastest women that day finished two minutes earlier. But since Iris PECORARI is from Italy, it was Dina PETERCA who took the gold medal in the Slovenian championships.
On the second weekend in September the Montreal Esprit Triathlon hosted the Canadian aquabike championships over middle and standard distance for the second time. On Saturday Marc ARSENEAU took a clear win in the standard distance race, but found his master the following day in Mathieu TURCOTTE who won the middle distance race on Sunday. The gold medals in the women´s races went to Caroline MARTEL and Julie CANTIN.
On the other side of the Atlantic there was another noteworthy race that weekend. The aquabike race at the St. Neots Standard Distance Triathlon was the third qualifier for the 2024 standard distance World´s for aquabikers from Great Britain . No less than 156 aquabike athletes finished the race, making it the biggest aquabike race since the first event in the UK in 2012. Alexander DAWSON was the winner of the race with the fastest woman Amy PRITCHARD coming in only about a minute later. It´s also worth mentioning that on the very same day the aquabike race at the Vitruvian Triathlon Rutland took place less than 100 miles away and also saw 44 finishing aquabike athletes. Almost double as many as in the previous year. It´s great to see aquabike racing still grow in the UK. Getting about time for British Triathlon to give UK aquabike athletes the chance to race for national titles as well.
In late September we had the second Aquabike World Championships over the standard distance taking place in Pontevedra, Spain . With 329 finisher we had almost double as many competing athletes than at the first edition in Abu Dhabi. The men´s race was won by young British athlete Robin HUGHES. Runner up at the long distance world´s Cesar PEREIRA DEL PINO again came in second – again missing the big won by only 20 seconds. European championship runner up Tommy NIELSEN completed the podium only 14 more seconds later.
In the women´s race it was another young gun taking the overall title, though much clearer than in the men´s race. New Zealand´s Sarah MCCLURE distanced defending champion Amy PRITCHARD by more than two and a half minute. Less than a minute later it was another Kiwi athlete Ange KEEN who took the third spot on the podium.
With 14 gold medals Team USA was once again the most successful at both world championships combined. After both of the world championships being held in Spain, it might not be a big surprise that British Athletes – who have a much shorter travel – won just as many medals overall as US aquabikers. What is surprising though is the medals table of the men´s races only. With 6 gold, 4 silver and 6 bronze medals it was hosting country Spain who won the most medals in the men´s races. While Team GB came home with 13 medals, the United States ended up only in third place in this statistic with “only” 9 medals – the same number as New Zealand.
| Rank | Country |  |  |  |
| 1. | United States of America | 14 | 8 | 9 |
| 2. | United Kingdom | 10 | 13 | 8 |
| 3. | Spain | 6 | 8 | 7 |
| 4. | New Zealand | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| 5. | Germany | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| 6. | Austria | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 7. | Canada | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 8. | Brazil | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 9. | France | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 10. | Poland | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 11. | Switzerland | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12. | Australia | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 13. | Norway | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 14. | Czechia | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 15. | Iceland | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 16. | Denmark | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 17. | Ireland | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 18. | South Africa | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 19. | Netherlands | 0 | 1 | 0 |
The last national champions of the year were crowned in Brazil . There was a standard distance national championship race on the 12th of October in Brasília where Bruno ORDONHO ARAUJO and Thaty PORTO both took wins in their very first aquabike race. Two months later the national championships for the middle distance were scheduled in Holambra. The race was later changed to standard distance also, leading to the odd situation that Brazil had two national championships over the same distance. In the men´s race Felipe DE ABREU BATISTA – another first time aquabiker – was the first to finish, while Renata SPADOTTO was able to repeat her win from 2021.
In October we also had two new countries joining the aquabike community. While the first aquabike race in Jamaica on the 1st of October had only one athlete finishing the aquabike race at the Mobay Triathlon Festival, two weeks later there were 13 aquabikers fighting for the first win in an aquabike race in the Philippines at the New Clark City Triathlon.
That was our summery of the biggest aquabike races in 2023. But there´s more to come in our 2023 season review with quite some gratifying facts and numbers. Stay tuned!