It´s not a big surprise that the weekend of the Aquabike Standard Distance World Championships in Pontevedra brought some significant changes in the Aquabike.World Rankings. Despite both new world champions not having participated in any other aquabike race this year and therefore are not amongst the top ranked athletes, especially the men´s rankings have been mixed up quite a bit. What might be a bit more surprising though is, that the new leader in the women´s rankings did not participate in the World Championships.
But let´s start with the men´s new leader. With current long distance World Champion, European Champion and former leader of the ranking Mathieu Dumont not racing in Pontevedra, we expected a close race for the new #1 between the previous holders of the podium spots, who both appeared on the start list. But after Ross Hamilton did not travel to Spain, the way was clear for the well deserved new #1 in the Men´s Aquabike.World Ranking. Congratulations go out to Germany to
Frank Erk
After remaining below his potential at the Long Distance World´s in Ibiza, Frank had a busy season, showing strong performances in some races in Germany, taking a big win at the Ch´Tri Man Gravelines in France and coming in 3rd overall at the European Championships in Belgium. With the Standard Distance suiting the strengths of the super strong cyclist a bit less, his 7th place overall in Pontevedra is certainly worth of all honour and pushed him to the top of the Aquabike.World Rankings after a super strong season. Congratulations Frank, very well deserved!
While Mathieu Dumont is now sitting in second place, runner up of both World Championships Cesar Pereira Del Pino is now holding the third spot on the podium of the men´s rankings.
As explained in a recent article the Women´s Rankings in general show a very different picture compared to the Men´s Rankings. With none of the podium finishers of the Long Distance World Championships in Ibiza as well as the European Championships in Menen competing in any other aquabike race this season, most of the girls in the top ranks are athletes from the United States or Great Britain who do a lot of races. The only one to finish in the top ranks in two of the three major events is Amy Pritchard. After missing the podium at the Europeans, she came in second in Pontevedra. Despite winning last year´s Standard Distance World´s in Abu Dhabi, she still gained some points because of the much bigger field of competing athletes this year. With the extra points she passed former leader Gayle Galletta. However, she was also passed herself by another athlete from the US.
On the same weekend an US athlete finished her races #9 and #10 of the season at the Giant Acorn Triathlon in Virginia. With a rather small field of aquabike racers there weren´t really big points for grab. But the third place overall at the standard distance race on Saturday and the overall win at the sprint distance race on Sunday were enough for
Monika LUKENS
to take the lead in the Women´s Aqubaike.World Rankings. Congratulations Monika!
If you think ten races in a season were enough, you were quite wrong. The following weekend Monika competed in the middle-distance race as well as in the sprint aquabike race at the Waterman´s Triathlon, and at another sprint distance race last weekend. Of course winning the women´s competition as well as finishing on the overall podium in all of those races, giving her now a quite comfortable lead in the rankings after no less than 13 season races. Chapeau!
While Amy Pritchard is now 2nd in the rankings, former leader Gayle Galletta is currently holding the third spot on the podium.
After the aquabike season already came to an end in most parts of Europe and the US, we still have some big races to come before the end of the year. The US national championships will take place at CLASH Daytona in December while we can also expect some bigger fields of aquabike athletes at the qualifiers for the 2024 World´s in Australia. So it´s not yet settled if the current leaders will keep their position by the end of the year. Watch this space.