We couldn’t very well write a story about why we should care about the World Aquathlon Championships and then not cover the race, right? Today’s World Triathlon Aquathlon Championships Samorin was the kick off of a huge weekend of racing here at the x-bionicsphere in Slovakia. While the race featured a bunch of names most Canadian triathlon fans won’t be familiar with, it did prove to be an impressive day of racing, especially for a strong Hungarian team.
“It feels really good, this is my first ever world championship Aquathlon, I did the European event at the Beach Games a couple of years ago so I feel pretty good,” Hungary’s Mark Devay said after the race. “I am still quite tired from Munich, Olympic distance and a mixed relay so the legs are pretty much destroyed so today I just tried to hold and put in 100 per cent from last week. I just wanted to push the swim as much as I could. I kept looking back to see if I could drop the others. I had some issues with the second to last buoy because of the sun so I had to sight a bit more often than I wanted to and managed to get a good gap. Just quick;y get into transition which took forever, it was very long and get the shoes on and get the run done as fast as I can.”
“Racing Aquathlon is very different, I was a bit confused because I am used to having all the bike equipment and everything set up but I just ran to transition with a pair of shoes which is unusual for me,” Devay continued. “Running after the swim is just longer than we used but as soon as I got the shoes on I didn’t really think about having the bike anything, it’s the run now, just had to run. It was a nice course. It’s pretty amazing out here, we have a whole sports venue with track, swimming pool and the horse track which is pretty cool.”
Photo: Celine Kaiser on her way to a silver medal at the World Triathlon Duathlon Championships Targu Mures. Photo: World Triathlon
Kaiser runs to the title
After exiting the water a minute down, Germany’s Celine Kaiser ran through the field to take the women’s race – which should hardly have been a surprise considering she took the silver medal at the World Triathlon Duathlon Championships in June.
“I am feeling amazing and I didn’t expect the result and it was great to race here,” Kaiser said after taking the world title. “My tactic was to be not too far away from the first swimmer. It was very good for me that the transition was very long, it was great to run here. I really loved the race format and I also like the venue and it’s very well organised. I would be very happy to race here again, the atmosphere is very familiar even though there are some very good athletes here, it feels like a family here. I didn’t plan to race here so I am just looking from week to week to which competition I want to do. Maybe I want to compete at the European Championships.”
Photo by:
World Triathlon
