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. On Saturday the Arctic One Tri & Para-Tri Festival took place at Dorney Lake. 21 aquabike athletes started the race. Winner of the race was Wayne HITCHCOTT, taking the win 27 seconds ahead of Colin NADIN, with Martin WILSON coming in third, about two minutes behind. The 210 points for the race win were enough to move Wayne into the Top 10 of the Men´s Aquabike Ranking Europe, where he´s now sitting in 10th place. The women´s race was won by Angela ADCOCK who came in two minutes before Isabelle WONG and three minutes ahead of Tracy MELVIN.
On Sunday it was the third edition of this years Dorney Triathlon series that took place at the same location. Serial winner of the season Mark YEOMAN took another impressive win at the standard distance aquabike race, finishing more than 13 minutes ahead of Harvey DRAYCOTT and Paul TALLENTIRE. It was his 6th win in his 6th aquabike race this season. Chapeau!
However – since all the wins were taken in standard distance races with a rather small number of competitors, the “big points” are still missing, meaning that Mark is still “only” 28th in the Aquabike Rankings. Certainly would be interesting to see him in a bigger race later this season.
In the sprint distance aquabike race at the Dorney Triathlon it was William ROWORTH-KEAR finishing first, about two and a half minutes ahead of Gary KING, while Jo GRAHAM took the win in the women´s race ahead of Ruby MILLARD.
The only other aquabike event this weekend was the standard distance race at the Gosfield Lake Triathlon. Last year´s winner Andrew NOTLEY defended his title in superior manner, taking the win 5 minutes ahead of Simon DANIEL who managed to hold on to 2nd place, finishing the race 31 seconds before Nick ESSER crossed the finish line in third. Fastest woman of the race was Nina WOOLLARD, taking the win in the women´s race, with Carina TAYLOR and Jane ALBINS finishing 2nd and 3rd.
You can find links to all full results at our aquabike race result search or check out the current Aquabike Ranking Europe.
Chapeau and congratulations to all aquabike finishers of last week´s races!