With races in Portugal and Austria and of course a bunch of races in England, another busy aquabike racing weekend lies behind us. But let´s start with the National Aquabike Championship race that we had in Ireland last weekend. It was carried out over the sprint distance at the Fingal Skerries Triahtlon. Ross HAMILTON was able to defend his title with a clear win, putting about four and a half minutes into second placed Jack KENNEDY and Michael MCGLOIN another 48 seconds behind. Much closer was the women´s race though. With four women starting the bike leg separated by only 17 seconds the decision had to be made on the bike. It was Danielle O’ RIORDAN who had the strongest bike legs, winning the race by only eight seconds ahead of Jennifer O’SULLIVAN with Cathy CUNNINGHAM following in third also just one more minute behind.

In Portugal 17 aquabike athletes participated in the middle distance aquabike race at the Multisport Weekend Coimbra. Marco CANELAS was the fastest of them, taking a clear win almost seven minutes ahead of Hugo CABRAL with Sjoerd DRENTJE. Winner of the women´s race was Bila DUARTE, with Lara KUNZE in second and Patrícia EMÍDIO in third place.

We also had another middle distance race in Austria at the traditional Waldviertler Eisenmann, which unfortunately had it´s last edition and won´t be continued after this year. Mario SZTOSICS won the race ahead of Thomas WALLUSCHNIG and Alexander HALBRITTER. As the only woman in the race it was Michaela SPINKA to grab the win in the women´s race.

Another traditional race in Austria is the Neufeld Triathlon, with his 35th edition one of the oldest triathlon races in Austria. For the second time an aquabike opton was offered for the standard distance race. While the race was perfectly organized some unfortunate circumstances led to the fact, that the decision about the spots on the podium was a bit random in the end. The fastest aquabike athlete had to be disqualified, because he started with the triathletes, not with the other aquabike athletes who started five minutes later. That was his own fault of course (because it was well communicated before). But the potential benefit from drafting and not having to zigzagging through the slower triathletes was certainly less than the six minutes time gap he had to the second fastest athlete. But the probably bigger issue was the miscommunication about the actual finish of the race. While the organizer communicated correctly that athletes have to run the the finishline after T2, some TO´s told the athletes that the race finishes at T2 entry and that they can walk or run to the finishline without a hurry. Four out of the first five athletes did exactly that. And the author of these lines was one of them. After hanging my bike without a hurry and having a little chat with another athlete, I slowly walked to the finishline, crossing it in 5^th place. But since I barely could do any training over the last few months and really didn´t expect anything from the race, that was certainly fine for me. Winner of the race was Jürgen SPITZBAUER who also was the first at T2 entry, so that was well deserved. The only athlete in the Top five who actually really ran to the finishline was Wolfgang POLJANC who came in second with Manfred KARNER following in third place. The three women in the race were a bit smarter – apparently they all knew where the race finishes. Fastest of them was Alina POLJANC, winning the race more than ten minutes ahead of Katharina AUER-VOIGTLÄNDER.

Last but not least let´s take a look at England´s aquabike races of last weekend. Biggest of them was the aquabike race at the Deva Triathlon, which was the second qualifier for the 2023 standard distance world championships. Fastest of the 80 race finishers was James DI-LUZIO, winning the men´s competition only eight seconds ahead of Alec BIRCH, with Andrew GOWLAND taking the third place on the podium two and a half minutes behind. In the women´s race Kate ROBINSON took an impressive win, putting almost six minutes into second placed Elizabeth LONGINOTTI, with Sam ANDERSON finishing third six and a half minutes behind the winner.

At the second Dorney Triathlon of the season Mark YEOMAN took his fourth win in his fourth aquabike race of the season in the standard distance race. Chapeau! With his third place behind Tom GRABHAM, Sharkie JAGGARD came pretty close to the Top10 of the aquabike rankings, sitting now in 11th place.
In the sprint race at the Dorney Triathlon it was Gary BRENNAN who was the fastest of the only three participants of the race.

There were three more sprint distance aqubike races in England last weekend. At the Mid Sussex Triathlon it was Jonathan TAYLOR who took the win in the men´s race while Valerie PLACE was the fastest women of the race. At the Dartmouth Triathlon David GILES was the fastest man of the day, with Victoria HARRISON winning the women´s race. And last but not least it was Carl SHAW who was the fastest of the six men competing in the aquabike race at the Staunton Harold Triathlon.

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!