What a thrilling race it was at the 5^th Aquabike World Championships in Samorin, Slovakia last Sunday. 170 aquabike athletes jumped into the Danube River at 10:20 in the morning. 2 hours, 33 minutes and 28 seconds later the fastest of them crossed the finishline at the x-bionic® sphere. Chapeau to Daniel KLOSA! The 4^th of last year´s World´s in Almere was the fastest aquabike athlete of the day, while the women´s race was won by last year´s runner up Amber SMOLIK.

With a lead of 18 respectively 32 seconds both of them took home pretty close wins after 2 km of swimming 80 km of cycling and 800 metres of running. For the first time in the young history of aquabike racing, the athletes had to run to the finishline in an international championship race. And it made some difference.

The Men´s Race

But let´s start with the swim. After a remarkable performance Daniel Klosa came out of the water first. The young German put about two minutes in second placed Andrew GOWLAND and almost three and a half minutes into James DI-LUZIO, who was closely followed by the second German Jonas HAFEMANN. The two British athletes both lost about 40 seconds to the Germans in transition. But more importantly they could not keep up with the strong cyclists from Germany on the bike. While Hafemann got closer to Klosa there were other strong cyclists rolling up the field from behind. Kurt HOLT, last year´s runner up in Almere once again showed a strong performance on the bike. After coming out of the water in 24^th position he put down the hammer on the bike. In 1:54:30 was the fastest bike split of the day, averaging almost 42 km/h. While he passed 22 athletes on the bike course, the two Germans in front were not in reach for him that day.

After a strong performance on the bike Jonas Hafemann was able to close the gap to Daniel Klosa. In previous World Championship races that would have meant a sprint finish on the road. But due to a change in the ITU competition rules, the aquabike athletes had to get through T2 and run to the finishline for the first time. Klosa came out of the transition 7 seconds ahead of Hafemann, who wasn´t able to close this gap to his young countryman on the final run. In the end 18 seconds separated the two Germans.

Jonas Hafemann was the athlete to win the first aquabike race in Germany in May at the Vierlanden Triathlon near Hamburg – after coming into T2 in third place, passing two athletes on the way to the finishline. How ironic to go the other way round in the World Championships.

Kurt Holt came in as a save third, about three minutes behind. Three more minutes passed before the next aquabikers crossed the finishline. With 5 athletes within only one minute the race for the other spots in the top 10 was pretty close. In the end it was the third German Christian DÜRR who came in 4^th, after coming into T2 in 6^th position. In the transition he passed Austria´s Arthur WINTER and US athlete Blair SAUNDERS, who came in 5^th and 6^th. They were followed by Frank ERK from Germany and France´s Guigou YVES-ANTOINE, while fastest British athlete James DI-LUZIO came in 9th and Oliver RAU completed the Top 10 in the men´s race.

 

The Women´s Race

In the women´s race it was Britain´s Bethany KINGTON who came out of the water first. But the gap to the strong cyclists wasn’t that big. Just as in Almere Sara BAUMANN and Amber SMOLIK came out of the water together 38 seconds behind. Last year in the Netherlands the Swiss girl put about three minutes between her and the US athlete to take the overall win. Now in Samorin it should be the other way round.

While the fastest swimmer of the race lost quite some time on the bike, Sara Baumann also was not able to keep up with Amber Smolik on the bike. But that certainly didn´t mean that the American had an easy race. Behind her it was Maria POWELL from Great Britain who came closer and closer on the bike. Coming out of the water almost four minutes behind Baumann and Smolik she already made up some time in transition. After only 2 hours and 6 minutes she was the fastest woman to finish the bike course, coming into T2 62 seconds behind Smolik. After making up some more time through transition she came even closer on the run to the finishline. In the end she missed the overall win by just 32 seconds. After a fifth place in Pontevedra in 2019 and a third place in Almere in 2021 Amber Smolik took the overall win in the women´s race of the Aquabike World Championships 2022 in Samorin. Congratulations Amber!

Behind Powell another GB athlete showed a strong performance on the bike. Kelly WARRINGTON completed the bike leg only 26 seconds slower to come in third overall, three minutes behind the winner. After losing quite some time on the bike defending champion Sara Baumann had to be content with 4^th place overall this time.

Fifth women to cross the finishline was the third Brithish athlete. And the third of them who showed a remarkable performance on the bike. Kimberley BARFOOT-BRACE was only 55 seconds slower than her fellow countrywoman Powell to record the third fastest bike split, still about a minute faster than the winner and almost seven minutes faster than the following athletes on the bike. Behind her it was a pretty close race for the following places. New Zealands Rebecca SWAINSON was the sixth and last woman to finish the race in less than three hours. However the two Germans Gabriele KECK and Nadine SCHYMSKI came in 22 and 25 seconds later with US athlete Gayle GALLETTA following also just 40 more seconds behind. With an overall time of 03:03:20 fastest swimmer Bethany KINGTON completed the top 10 in the women´s race.

Rank	Country
1.	Germany	3	2	0
2.	United Kingdom	3	1	4
3.	Austria	1	1	1
4.	Czechia	1	0	0
5.	Australia	0	3	2
6.	Spain	0	1	1
7.	Denmark	0	1	0

So this was the quite exciting Aquabike World Championship Race 2022. You can check out the full race results here. Unfortunately we don´t have any pictures or other footage from the race yet. You have participated in the race? Maybe you´d like to take a few minutes to write a race review to let us know how your race was.