With no races on the continent last weekend it was a purely British aquabike racing weekend. We had two middle distance races at the A Day In The Lakes Triathlon and the Metric Aquabikus at the Centurion Triathlon Herts, where we also had a long distance race with the Imperial Aquabikus. The races which attracted the most aquabike athletes were a bit shorter though.
With races in Portugal and Austria and of course a bunch of races in England, another busy aquabike racing weekend lies behind us. But let´s start with the National Aquabike Championship race that we had in Ireland last weekend. It was carried out over the sprint distance at the Fingal Skerries Triahtlon. Ross HAMILTON was able to defend his title with a clear win, putting about four and a half minutes into second placed Jack KENNEDY and Michael MCGLOIN another 48 seconds behind. Much closer was the women´s race though. With four women starting the bike leg separated by only 17 seconds the decision had to be made on the bike. It was Danielle O’ RIORDAN who had the strongest bike legs, winning the race by only eight seconds ahead of Jennifer O’SULLIVAN with Cathy CUNNINGHAM following in third also just one more minute behind.
Last weekend the 24th country joined the world of aquabike racing. Poland had it´s first ever aquabike race which also was the National Championship over the sprint distance. With Nationals over standard, middle and long distance also following this year, Poland will be the first country to host championships over four distances. But let´s start with the sprint race which was held at the Triathlon Rzeszów.
Seven years after the last edition of Swim & Bike Werbellinsee (see Aquabike History) we finally had the first and long awaited aquabike races in Germany at the Vierlanden Triathlon near Hamburg. Unfortunately the weather was not particularly inviting. With 15,7°C in the water and 11°C and also quite some rain outside many registered athletes decided not to appear at the startline. However, there were still 19 cold-resistant aquabike athletes competing in the middle distance race.
And what a race it was!
Dennis MÖLLER came out of the water first, with Jonas HAFEMANN about a minute behind. But with the fastest transition time, Jonas came out of T1 five seconds ahead of Dennis. Apparently the two of them stayed together over the bike course, with Dennis Möller coming into T2 11 seconds ahead of Jonas Hafemann. But they weren´t leading the aquabike race at that point. Because Frank ERK, who started be bike leg about six minutes behind stormed to the front, getting into T2 five seconds ahead of Dennis Möller. But neither of them managed to take the race win.
We had a pretty busy weekend of aquabike racing in England with no less than 13 aquabike races on the British Island. But first of all let´s have a look over at mainland Europe where the 100% Half Empuriabrava in the Northeast of Spain included a middle distance aquabike race for the second year.
Fabian BADIA VICENT was able to repeat his 2021 win at this event, though it was much closer this time. In a time of 02:50:36 He was five minutes faster than last time, to beat Marc SANGRÀ LLUCH by only 59 seconds, with Alex PAGAN MONTORO only 26 more seconds behind. The women´s race was won by Audrey SYREN, with Paqui MIRANDA MEDINA taking second place about four minutes behind and Duna SALLENT SALLÓ coming in third.
First of all let´s have a look over at Spain where we had the long distance national championships, followed by the middle distance championships only six days later. With most athletes focusing on the middle distance race in Papmplona, there was a relatively small field of 20 aquabikers at the long distance race at the Tradeinn International Triathlon 140.6INN in Platja d´Aro. Fastest man of the day was Albert GRATACÓS GRAU, taking the win about 4 minutes ahead of Javier CERDEIRA MELERO and 9 minutes ahead of Roberto MILLARES GOMEZ. Only three women were entering the race, which was won by Ainara BENAVENTE BABACE – who by the way is also one of the only three athletes to race both, the long and middle distance championships.
How to qualify for the Europen Aquabike Championships 2022
In my last article I wrote about the general requirements to take part in an international aquabike championship race. But there is a bit more to consider for every race. The registration always has to go through your national triathlon federation. This process is quite different in every country. In some you have to qualify or match other criteria. I checked the qualification criteria in the Top 15 European countries of our Country Ranking. So if you´re planning to be on the startline at the European Aquabike Championships in Bilbao in September, here is what it takes.
In 2017 we had the first ever Long Distance Aquabike World Championships in Pentiction, Canada. The following year the European Championships had their premiere in Ibiza. And this year will be the first time we´ll also have a World Championship over the Standard Distance in November in Abu Dhabi. Before that we´ll have the Long Distance World´s in Šamorín, Slovakia (which is actually more like a middle distance race) in August and the Middle Distance European´s in Bilbao, Spain in September.
But what does it take to take part in one of those races? If you consider racing in a European or World Championship event, we´ll let you know, what you have to consider.
This year´s Aquabike Long Distance World Championships will be held on the 21st of August at the amazing x-bionic® sphere in Šamorín, Slovakia. The Multisport World Championships (which also includes the Aquathlon World´s) will be held in conjunction with the Collins Cup, which takes place the day before.
Amongst Triathletes the race venue is probably best known for hosting “The Championship” – the flagship race of the Challenge Family since 2017. It´s a modern multi sports resorts with all kinds of venues for horse riding, swimming, athletics, team sports and many more. I was fortunate enough to race there at the very first Challenge Family event at this location in 2016 – and I have to say it´s an absolutely exciting race location!
When you try to find out about the history of aquabike races and when and where it all started, you usually get to hear (or to read), that the first races happened to be in the year 2005 in the United States. But that´s actually not the whole story. The first races happened a few years earlier in a place that you probably wouldn´t guess.