Week 18 & 19 Race Reports

First of all let´s have a look over at Spain where we had the long distance national championships, followed by the middle distance championships only six days later. With most athletes focusing on the middle distance race in Papmplona, there was a relatively small field of 20 aquabikers at the long distance race at the Tradeinn International Triathlon 140.6INN in Platja d´Aro. Fastest man of the day was Albert GRATACÓS GRAU, taking the win about 4 minutes ahead of Javier CERDEIRA MELERO and 9 minutes ahead of Roberto MILLARES GOMEZ. Only three women were entering the race, which was won by Ainara BENAVENTE BABACE – who by the way is also one of the only three athletes to race both, the long and middle distance championships.

Week 18 & 19 Weekly Race Report

84 aquabikers were on the startline of the Spanish Middle Distance Championships at the Half Triathlon Pamplona – Iruña with 11 more in the open race. Albert REDOLAD CANALDA took the victory about a minute ahead of Guillermo CUCHILLO BERMEJO with Josep GOMEZ SARRIA in third place only half a minute behind. The women´s race wasn´t quite as close. It was Irati MENDIA GARCIA clocking the fastest time almost 4 minutes ahead of Tuxa FDEZ-CORONADO ALONSO and 8 minutes ahead of Irene SANCHEZ MERINO. Only 6 days after her victory in the long distance championships, Ainara BENAVENTE BABACE came in at a respectable 4th place, missing the podium by only two minutes.

Apparently there have been some issues with time keeping in the open race (not sure if this also applies to the championship race). You can read more about it in Paul´s race review. But the finish times at the official race results of the open race are obviously not correct. We hope that at least the order of athletes is correct though.

Meanwhile in Austria we also had the first aquabike races the last two weekends. The season started with the aquabike race at the Austrian 1/2 Iron Triathlon, a middle distance race in the south of Styria. There have been a few aquabike athletes on the startlist. But due to bad weather conditions French-Austrian Olivier CARTERET was the only athlete on the startline. Although the name of our sport might suggest otherwise, I guess most aquabikers don´t like too much water on the bike course 😄.

Last weekend we had the first ever sprint distance aquabike race in Austria at the Aloha Tri Steyregg where Patrick WISINGER won the race with a great performance while Patricia LINECKER took the win in the women´s race.

We also had the first (and yet the only) aquabike races of the season in Greece and the Netherlands . At the Schinias Triathlon it was Minas MALATOS winning the men´s race and Elena DIMITROPOULOU taking the win in the women´s race. A week later it was Guido GOSSELINK defending his title at the UT Triathlon with a stunning performance while Marloes VOORHOUT won the women´s race with an equally respectable performance.

But of course we also had quite some aquabike racing action on the Brithish Island . On Mother´s Day we had two sprint races. The aquabike race at the Skegness Triathlon was won by Shaun ROBINSON and Sophie DOIG, while David TAFT and Anna PRIESTLEY were the fastest ahtletes at the HSV Triathlon.

At last weekend´s Banbury Sprint Triathlon we saw a women´s dominated startlist. With Barry WHITE as the only male aquabike athlete on the startline it was Roisin BROWNE clocking the fastest time overall, winning the race with a respectable margin of more than 7 minutes ahead of Emma BEST, who came only in second best that day. In the first race of the St. Neots Triathlon Series it was Mark YEOMAN taking the win in a superior manner more than 11 minutes ahead of Neil RUFF and about 18 miutes ahead of Amy SOLE who won the women´s race with the 3rd fastest time overall that day. Thanks to that great result Amy stormed up the Rankings and is now holding 2nd place in the Women´s Ranking. Chapeau Amy!

And last but not least we also had a Middle Distance race in the South of England last weekend at the Immortal Aquabike Stourhead. In the men´s race it was Paul ROBERTS taking the win more than 12 minutes ahead of Les SHEPPARD and Mark BOWDITCH. The women´s race was much closer with Susie PEART taking the better end by only 35 seconds. Teresa DOHERTY came in as a close second with Lana KING as third also less than 5 minutes behind the winner.

 

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