Over the last two weekends the top ranks in the Aquabike Ranking Europe got completely mixed up – the men´s ranking as well as the women´s. Main reason of course was the World Championships in Samorin. But there were also some big points to grab at several National Aquabike Championship races. And: the serial winners of the season in England also accumulated some more points in races on the island, climbing up the ranks step by step.
It´s championship time! Over the last two weekends we did not only have an exciting but also a little controversial race the Aquabike Long Distance Championships in Samorin. On the same day there were also the National Championships in Poland over the standard distance. And last Sunday we had the first ever National Championships in Belgium (with the first ever aquabike race in this country) as well as the National Championships in Denmark. But of course there was also quite some racing action once again on the British islands with both of the two most successful aquabike athletes of the year winning another race.
Dear World Triathlon Officials,
The 2022 edition of the World Triathlon competition rules brought some significant changes for aquabike races. The probably most important one is regarding the finish of the race:
The World Championships Aquabike race in Samorin was the first race where this rule was applied. While in previous European and World Championship races the race finished before Transition Area 2, aquabike athletes had to run 800 metres to the finishline in Samorin.
This lead to quite some changes in the overall results of the race. In the following table you can see the position of the first 6 athletes at the end of the bike course, compared to their position at the finishline:
What a thrilling race it was at the 5th 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 4th 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.
We are heading into the last few weeks of the racing season in most parts of Europe. The biggest races of the year are yet to come though. The World Championships are just around the corner (check out our race preview) and the European Championships are also just about a month away. There haven´t been a lot of races over the last two weeks, but certainly some interesting ones in Austria, Slovakia and of course in England.
Only a few days are left before the Aquabike Long Distance World Championships take place in Samorin, just a few kilometres outside of Slovakia´s capital Bratislava. I hope those of you who are on the startlist are well prepared and enjoy their tapering period.
The x-bionic® sphere is an awesome race venue for a multisport race, the weather forecast looks pretty good and we can expect a perfectly organized race. However, this year´s Aquabike World Championship race marks a noteworthy change in the race format that probably not every aquabike athlete is delighted of.
Since the launch of the Aquabike Ranking Europe, the men´s rankings remained quite stable. Adam Lambrechts taking clear wins in last years European and World Championships and also other athletes performing well in both big races, there haven´t been too many changes in the the top rankings eversince.
The situation in the women´s rankings is quite different though. With no female athlete in the top ranks in both big events, it´s still possible to get to the top with some top performances in smaller races. After Amy Sole dethroned last season´s number one Clare Crabtree in June, Amy had to pass the scepter on to the new leader in the women´s ranking only a few weeks later.
There haven´t been too many aquabike races in Europe over the last two weeks. While we had also races in Hungary and Ireland last weekend, the weekend before was a purely English aquabike racing weekend. Some of the aquabike events attracted quite a big number of competitors though.
It´s been a rather quiet weekend of aquabike racing in Europe. The only race that was scheduled on the continent was the National Aquabike Championship over the middle distance at the Poznan Triathlon in Poland. Unfortunately there was a bathing ban at Jezioro Maltańskie – the lake where the swim should have taken place. The local authorities closed the lake the week before the race due to bad water quality after a spread of cyanobacteria. While the Triathlon was switched into a duathlon, the aquabike race obviously had to be cancelled. However, after the championships over the sprint distance in June aquabike athletes in Poland still will have two more championship races (standard and long distance) later this season.
So we only had four races at two locations in England last weekend.
We had a super busy aquabike racing weekend on the British Islands with 149 athletes finishing one of twelve races at eight events. Meanwhile on the continent we only had one aquabike event this weekend. Though the aquabike race at the Triathlon des Gorges de l’Ardèche in southern France is one of the hardest but also one of the most scenic races in Europe and certainly worth some attention.