Sprint World Championships in the Quadrathlon Mecca

On the last weekend in June, the quadrathlon elite met once again in Tyn nad Vltavou for the Sprint World Championships (0.75-21.9-4-6.6). The town in the South Bohemian region of the Czech Republic hosted a pure quadrathlon event for the 23rd time, which was again organised by the local kayak club around Jiri Kobera.
On Saturday morning, the international competitors met in the transition zone and discussed all kinds of topics.
Before the race briefing, a minute’s silence was held in memory of the recently deceased WQF Honorary President Václav Marek.
At 12 noon sharp, the quadrathletes (47 individual starters/12 relay teams) set off for discipline 1, the swim, in the Vltava River in glorious weather.
In the men’s race, Laurent Martinou (who won the World Cup race in France last week) came out of the water about 20 seconds ahead of the competition. In the women’s competition, Anna Maria Zagónska from Poland entered the bike transition zone with a lead of over a minute ahead of Magdalena Koberova from the Czech Republic.
Laurent Martinou (FRA) and Ferenc Cisma (HUN) pulled away slightly on the challenging bike course with over 400 metres of climbing, closely followed by Michael Faustmann (GER), Leonardo Giusti (ITA) and Leoš Roušavý (CZE). Anna Maria Zagónska maintained her lead in the women’s race, while Barbara Hirsch (GER) cycled her way up to 2nd place.
On the kayak course, the specialists, Ferenc Cisma in the men’s race and Anna Maria Zagónska in the women’s race, gave the competition no chance and pulled well ahead.
With this clear lead, both went onto the run course and were able to maintain their lead until the finish line to later be crowned Sprint World Champion 2025. Laurent Martinou and Leonardo Giusti followed in 2nd and 3rd place in the men’s race with the 2 best running times. Susanne Walter secured the women’s runner-up title ahead of Barbara Hirsch (both GER).
The participants of the 12 relay teams not only lowered the age average enormously, but were also an absolute enrichment of this festival with their ambition, cheering and performance.
After the award ceremony, everyone sat together at the sensational buffet on the roof terrace of the canoe club, drank a cold drink or two, analysed their own race and discussed the next meetings.
The next World Cup stops are Bydgoszcz (Poland) on 12th of July for the sprint distance and Nagyatad (Hungary) on 10th of August for the long-distance world championships.