For many years British athletes were asking for it, wondering why there are national championships for all the other multisport disciplines over various distances, while aquabike – a discipline which is established for quite a while now on the British Islands -was always left behind.

In 2024 we had national aquabike championships in eight European countries, in some of them even over several distances. None of those countries has a number of aquabike races that comes anywhere near the choice of events we have in the UK, especially in England. And nowhere aquabike racing is established for such a long time like on the island.

Just a few weeks ago we had the first ever Welsh aquabike championships. A bit curious, as we have no records about any other aquabike race in Wales before that. While we had countless events for many years in England and also a few races every year in Scotland, the (probably) first ever aquabike race in Wales took place not before this September. So the aquabike race at Triathlon Y Bala also served not only as first Welsh aquabike championship, but actually the first ever aquabike championships in Great Britain.

Fair enough, England was now quick to follow. Yesterday British Triathlon announced the dates for all national championships and qualification races for the next racing season. And guess what – it included an English and British aquabike championship for the very first time. It will take place at the Burghley Multisport Weekend on 11 May 2025, while the Welsh aquabike championships will be carried out again at the Triathlon Y Bala in September.

And also, the three events to serve as a qualifier for the 2026 standard distance world championships have been announced (location yet to be anounced by World Triathlon):

Deva Triathlon on 01 June 2025

Artic One Tri and Para-Tri Festival on 12 July 2025 (details not out yet, but you can check out last year’s event details when it was a sprint distance race)

Blithfield Triathlon on 17 August 2025

I´m really happy for our fellow UK aquabikers that they can finally compete for gold silver and bronze medal in their home country. As it comes quite early in next year’s racing season, you better keep the off season short :).