Over the last few weeks we have seen quite some changes at the top of the men´s as well as the women´s rankings. But the new leaders of the rankings are there to stay for a while. At least until the end of the year.
The European Aquabike Championships ended with victories for the big favourites. With their stunning performances in Bilbao they are now also the new leaders of the Aquabike Ranking Europe.
Chapeau to
Amy Pritchard
and
Adam Lambrechts
Although in both cases their win in Bilbao wasn´t a surprise, it wasn´t to expect that they would take the lead in the rankings. Especially not in the case of the men´s new leader. Adam was also the winner of last year´s European Championships at Challenge Walchsee in Austria. So he had to defend his points from this race. But: The number of aquabike athletes at the European Championships almost tripled this year – mainly due to the fact that British athletes were not able to compete in Austria last year due to travel restrictions. And the number of finishers of a race is a considerable factor for the calculation of the points you can get in a race (read more about how the points are calculated in our FAQ). So this means that Adam got significantly more points for his win in Bilbao, compared to his win in Walchsee last year.
With 261 athletes finishing the race, the field of aquabike athletes at the European Championships also was clearly bigger than the one at the World Championships in Šamorín, Slovakia in August, where we had 164 finishers in the aquabike race. Another factor in the points calculation is the difficulty level of a race. So the bigger number of competing athletes and the more demanding race course lead to the fact that in the European Championships there were much more points to be awarded than at the World Championships (although they have a higher multiplier – since it´s the World´s). Without detracting the performance of the athletes at the World Championships, the points gained in Bilbao were certainly well deserved.
Other than the men´s new #1, the new leader in the women´s ranking didn´t have to defend any points from last year´s championships. But before Bilbao Amy only competed in one other race this season. With some other female athletes scoring quite some points in several races it wasn´t to expect that the former World and European Champion would be able to get enough points to take the lead. However, the other race she competed in was the biggest non championship race of the season. With 115 finishing the standard aquabike race at the Bournemouth International Triathlon there were also quite some points to score. So the two big wins were enough to now give Amy a quite comfortable lead in the rankings.
There are only a few more aquabike races to be finished this season, especially in Spain. It certainly would be a surprise if the top positions in the rankings would see another change. But this could well be the case by the 1st of January in 2023. Why? You´ll get to know very soon. Watch this space…