What a phenomenal year of aquabike racing 2025 was. With aquabike athletes from 56 different countries competing throughout the year, over 10,000 race finishes and 3 countries hosting their first ever aquabike race, 2025 has firmly stamped its place in aquabike history. And that’s before we even mention the incredible season of Neil SEMMEL!
2025 Championships Races – A Summary
2025 Aquabike Standard Distance World Championships
Only seven years after the first aquabike race took place in Australia, the 2025 Aquabike Standard Distance World Championships arrived in Wollongong in October 2025. Despite the lower number of athletes travelling across the oceans the race Downunder, no less than 430 aquabike athletes showed up at the start line, making it the second biggest race in the history of our sport.
The win in the men’s race went to Christo BALL, followed by long time leader of the race Nigel FANNING in second, and Hayden ARMSTRONG in third.
With the top 5 athletes in the women’s race starting the last 13km bike lap only 48 seconds apart, this was possibly the most thrilling final of any international aquabike race we have seen yet. Hannah GIBSON finished first, followed four seconds later by Hayley LYALL, then Hayley DAVIS in third.
You can read more about the 2025 Aquabike Standard Distance World Championships here.
2025 Aquabike Long Distance World Championships
The 2025 Aquabike Long Distance World Championships took place in Pontevedra, Spain in June. Despite mixed reviews, mostly influenced by a lack of food and drink, the atmosphere in the city was superb and both the swim and bike ran smoothly.
The men’s race was won by Ukraine’s Igor FRANKO, followed by Tommy NIELSEN and Thijmen POLMAN.
In the women’s race, Sione JONGSTRA cruised to a six-minute lead, in front of Katrin PALSDOTTIR and Grace ROBINSON.
You can read more about the 2025 Aquabike Long Distance World Championships here.
World Championships Medal Table
Looking at the medal table for the 2025 World Championships, Australia finished top with a total of 47 medals – an incredible feat, but perhaps aided by the fact they held the World Standard Distance Championships. That said, Australia did also top the table in 2024. Narrowly behind were the United Kingdom, followed by New Zealand. Perhaps surprisingly, the US finished in 4th place, a fall from 2nd place overall finish in 2024. Ukraine, Iceland, Slovakia and Italy all made the medal table in 2025 despite not doing so in the previous year.
2025 Aquabike Middle Distance European Championships
Pamplona held the 2025 Aquabike Middle Distance Championship – a 1.9km crystal clear lake swim followed by a challenging 85km point-to-point bike course, more so made challenging by traffic and blocking on the bike course due to almost 1000 triathletes and aquabikers being set off within 20 minutes of one another.
Nonetheless, Pamplona saw some incredible aquabike racing. In the men’s race, Bastien RAVENELLE took a clear top spot, despite it being his very first aquabike race. Frank ERK came in second, followed by Marcos DEL ALAMO MARTINEZ.
Ariadna ARISO VILANOVA won on home soil in the women’s race, followed by Victoria ROTHWELL and CLAIRE MARTIN.
You can read more about the 2025 Aquabike Middle Distance European Championships here.
UK and US National Championships
2025 saw the first British Aquabike Championships, held at Burghley Park. In the men’s race, first went to Kris WHITELAW, second to Micheal JONES, and third to Adam GIBSON. In the women’s race, Jessica CAUGHTRY took the top spot, followed by Georgia HAMBLETT in second and Kathryn BERRY in third.
Across the water in the US, Omaha held the National Championships. Here, Jacob CAPIN, Maarten BOUT and Vic PERINI made up the men’s podium, where Stephanie OECHSNER, Kirsten SASS and Sarah FORMEN completed the women’s.
Aquabike Racing – A Global Picture
A Year of Firsts
2025 saw aquabike racing spread even more around the globe, with athletes from 56 countries racing in 2025 – 3 more than in 2024.
3 countries had their first ever aquabike race: Finland, Qatar and Serbia.
There were also many firsts when we look at major championship racing. The UK hosted their first National Aquabike Championships in 2025, and aquabikers in Denmark welcomed an even greater progression. Denmark became the fifth country (after US, Canada, Spain and Portugal) to introduce national championships over different distances.
There was also the first continental championships outside of Europe at the African Championships in South Africa last April.
Another location to note is La Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Despite such a remote location, there were no less than 74 athletes starting at the Trirun Man Aquabike in June, and 35 at the Tri97.4 in October.
Diving into the Numbers
9776 athletes completed an aquabike race in 2025, clocking up 10189 race finishes. That’s down 2.1% from 9938 in 2024 – a year which saw remarkable growth in aquabike racing.
The global drop was mainly down to the US, the world’s largest aquabike nation. Here, the number of athletes racing dropped by 9%, from 3971 to 3597. There were also small drops in participation in Spain (potentially due to an increase in 2024 due to the World Standard Championships being held on home soil) and New Zealand.
Elsewhere, the picture was more positive. In aquabike nations #2 and #3 – the UK and Australia – there was an increase of 12 and 13% respectively. Most countries had very similar participation figures to 2024 give or take a handful of athletes. Countries such as Ireland, Austria, Brazil and Denmark all saw encouraging increases.
Let’s Look at Gender
Gender spilt has become slightly more unbalanced compared to 2024, with female participation dropping from 43.2% (4295 females) to 42.7% (4178 females).
There haven’t been any massive drops in female participant in a particular country, more so drops have been in line with equivalent male figures. In certain countries that have seen growth, such as Brazil, this growth has come mainly from male participants.
Canada has been joined by Hungary, albeit to a lesser degree, in having more female finishers than male.
The Biggest Races of 2025
As per 2024, the 2025 Aquabike Standard Distance World Championships had the most finishers, almost double that of the second most popular race. The other international races had almost the exact same number of particpants, and were the second and third largest races of 2025.
The US National Championships were next, with 181 finishers. Suprisingly, the British National Championships did not follow suit. In fact, three other UK races – Blithfield, Deva and Artic One – all saw more finishers than the British Championships at Burghley. These races were qualifiers for major championships, however this is still unexpected.
Ch’Tri Man Gravelines in France and Mooloolaba in Australia also had more participants than any race in the UK, with Ch’Tri Man Gravelines almost beating the US National Championships to the top spot of the largest non-International Championship race.
Performances that Caught our Eye
Highest Number of Finishes
In women’s racing, two athletes completed 12 aquabike races in 2025, American Monika LUKENS and Australian Suize VAN DER BROEK. Monika was the highest participating female in 2024 and held on, albiet this time jointly, to the top spot in 2025. Karin DAUN and Jennifer LONG both completed 10 races each.
Unsurprisingly – if you have read our previous posts – Neil SEMMEL completed the highest number of races across the men’s field, with an astounding 32 finishes in 2025. He was followed by Arthur GILLARD with 22 finishes, and Craig PARKES with 15.
Highest Number of Wins
Suize VAN DER BROEK took top spot amongst the women in 2025, with 7 wins, meaning she won over half of her races. Karin DAUN won 6 races, achieving a similar success rating.
Again, Neil SEMMEL reigned top in the highest number of wins, with 24 podium-topping finishes in 2025. He was followed again by Arthur GILLARD with 17.
Individual Rankings
Neil SEMMEL had an absolutely incredible season to finish first in the men’s rankings. This included 32 races, 24 overall wins and racing two events on the same day in pursuit of his goal to finish top of the rankings in 2025. We were completely blown away by Neil’s dedication to aquabike – you can read more about his amazing feat here. He knocked long standing leader – with long standing being 812 days – Frank ERK off top spot. Frank finished the season ranked second male. Third place went to Paul VANOTTI.
In the women’s rankings, Kerry HICKSON finished top, followed by Monika LUKENS and Laurne JENSENMCGINNIS.
And if we’re talking distance …
Despite mainly racing the shorter distances, Neil SEMMEL also set a new record for the distance raced within a year. With a total of 1115km raced in 2025, he’s only the second athlete to crack the 1000km mark after previous record holder Angel FERNANDEZ MARTINEZ who raced 1037km in 2023.
Looking ahead to 2026 …
2025 was an amazing year, but we have every reason to believe 2026 can be even bigger and better for aquabike racing. With major championships in Pontevedra, Banyoles and Abu Dhabi already in the calendar, and the first races of the year already taking place in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United States, we cannot wait to see what the 2026 season has in store.
Ready for 2026?