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.

Let´s start in Poland though. After the first National Championships over the sprint distance in June and the cancellation of the middle distance Championships in July we had the third of four National Championships in Poland this year. The race over the standard distance took place in Białystok in the northeast of the country and saw clear wins in the men´s race as well as I the women´s race. In the men´s race it was Piotr ŁAZARONEK who put more than nine minutes into second placed Jacek TOMASZEWSKI with Piotr SUWARA coming in third, two more minutes behind. Only two women started the race. Anna WYPARŁO was the faster of them, taking the gold medal also about nine minutes ahead of Aleksandra KIEDA.

In France we had one of the very few offroad aquabike races on the calendar. The Swimbike & Aquathlon de Saint Estèphe offered aquabike races over two distances. In the standard distance race last year´s winner Mathieu DUMONT defended his title, taking a clear win about 8 minutes ahead of last year´s third placed Marc MASSOUBRE who climbed up one more step on the podium. Paul CASTERA was the third to cross the finishline, 49 seconds later. In the women´s race it was also last year´s winner Amélie VANTOMME who was the faster of only two women in the race.

In the sprint distance race it was David GESNOUIN who took a well deserved win, about seven minutes ahead of Stéphane SANSARLAT. Three minutes later it was Lucas MAGNE coming in third, only eight seconds ahead of Frederic CROUZILLE who had to settle for fourth place. Fastest woman of the race was Elodie COURMONT, putting last year´s winner Carine CESAR into second place.

The only aquabike race in England that weekend was at the Blithfield Triathlon with races over the standard and sprint distance. In the standard distance race it was Steve GOODALL who took a clear win about seven minutes ahead of Simon GRAY with third placed Daniel WHITTAKER coming in two more minutes behind. Claire THOMPSON was the faster of the only two women in the race, taking a clear win ahead of Jane WILD.

Ashley KIRKHAM took the win in the men´s sprint distance race, distancing second placed Thomas CARNES by almost six minutes, while Diane BROOKS won the women´s race with almost the same time gap to Joanne BEACH.

 

Last weekend the Triatlonweekend Viersel hosted the first ever aquabike race in Belgium – and the first ever National Aquabike Championships. 54 athletes finished the race. But it wasn´t only a big race according to quantity of the starters. If you take a look at the times this was probably one of the strongest fields of athletes in an aquabike race we have seen so far – including international championship races. The winner was no surprise though. After not being able to defend his title in the World Championships for personal reasons Adam LAMBRECHTS crowned himself the first National Aquabike Champion in Belgium. Compared to his wins in last year´s European and World Championships, the winning gap of 2 minutes and 29 seconds wasn´t as big as it might seem for a standard distance race. Louis RASKIN came in second, holding off Niels VANHOVE by only seven seconds. But not only the fight for the podium was close. While Adam´s win was rather unchallenged, no less than 24 athletes came in within 10 minutes after the podium finishers. Different to other countries also many young athletes seem to be attracted by the Swim&Bike race format in Belgium, with all the Top 10 finishers being under 40 years of age.

Despite the strong field of starters, also the women´s race had a clear winner. Kaat VAN EYNDE finished about three minutes ahead of Demmy DRUYTS, who needed the fastest bike time to catch Elke NAETS who came in third, 33 seconds behind.

 

On the same day also Denmark had it´s National Aquabike Championships. As part of the Silkeborg Triathlon it was carried out over the middle distance. After a strong swim Kristoffer WEBER LARSEN came out of the water three and a half minutes ahead of defending champion Tommy NIELSEN. Third and fourth after the swim were Jacob DYRBYE and Sune STEINICHE KJÆR coming out of the water one resp. two minutes later. On the bike the two leaders had almost exactly the same time, but both were passed from the two strong cyclists coming from behind. At the finishline it was Sune who took the win, only 24 seconds ahead of Jacob. With Kristoffer keeping the same distance between him and Tommy he eventually came in third, with last year´s winner Tommy having to settle for fourth place this time.

But if you think, this was a close win, you should take a look at the women´s race. Heidi KJÆR MIKKELSEN came out of the water more than five minutes ahead of her closest rival Anna SEROP. But Anna showed a strong performance on the bike, caught Heidi and crossed the finishline first. Only one single second ahead of Heidi. As close as the race for #1 was, as big was the gap to the third woman in the race who was Annette RASK THOMSEN, coming in almost twenty minutes later.

 

Meanwhile in Ireland the Dublin City Triathlon offered an aquabike option for the first time. With 22 athletes on the startline it will hopefully be continued. Eoin BRADY was the fastest of them, showing an impressive performance, winning the race with a quite big time gap for a sprint distance race of almost four minutes. The race for the following places was pretty close though. Patrick CAREY came in third ahead of David GILLESPIE who came in 35 seconds later and the next athletes Peter O’CONNOR and Ronan TRAVERS both missing the podium by only a few seconds.

Deirdre WALSH was fastest woman of the race, taking the win two and a half minutes ahead of Elizabeth O’CONNOR. Monica SAVAGE came in third, only half a minute later.

 

In England the New Forest Middle Distance Triathlon attracted 20 athletes to start the aquabike race last weekend.  With an impressive performance on the bike Nathan MORGAN took the third win in his third middle distance race this season. Chapeau! After coming out of the water four minutes ahead of Nathan, Andrew TOURELL had to settle with second place, 4:43 behind the winner. Third to cross the finishline was Adam PHILLIPS, who came in another four minutes behind.

In the women´s race Susie PEART took her second win of the season after the Immortal Aquabike Stourhead in May. Francine DAVIS came in second about a minute behind, while the fastest swimmer Kerry SMITH ended up in third place.

 

And last but not least we had the fourth ATW Dorney Lake Triathlon of the season. With 15 aquabike athletes in the standard distance race it was the biggest field of aquabike competitors of those four races. But they all had the same winner. Mark YEOMAN also won the fourth standard distance race at Dorney lake, taking his ninth victory of the season! Unbelievable! And once again he took the win with quite a winning margin. Second placed Rafael NUNEZ came in 6 minutes and 45 seconds behind, while third placed Luke GOSSET lost more than 12 minutes to the dominating athlete of the year in England´s standard distance aquabike races. The women´s race was a bit closer though. Winner Charlotte GRAVES came in two minutes before Jo GRAHAM, with Nicki BROAD coming in third 02:41 minutes behind.

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!