Susanne Walter and Gergö Nemeth are the World Champions

The benchmark for all athletes at the Quadratlon Middle Distance event in beautiful Gyerkenyes is Gerkö Nemeth. No one could hold a candle to the 25-year-old former triathlon professional from Lake Balaton today. In perfect conditions, with clear skies and an air temperature of 22 degrees, the starting gun went off on the dot at 11:50 am by the lake. The swim course was halved to 750 m, as the water was still only 15.1 °C at a depth of one metre that morning. Right from the start, Nemeth made it clear that he intended to have a say in the podium places. With the fastest swim time of 9:40 min, Martinou, Faustmann, Rousavy and defending champion Csima followed just one minute behind. For the next hour, none of the chasers would even catch a glimpse of Nemeth’s rear wheel on the 40 km cycling course. With an average speed of 45 km/h and a cycling time of 51:30 min, he extended his lead by a further 5 minutes. But now came the 10km kayak leg, where the strong kayakers, led by Ferenc Csima and Faustmann, were able to play their trump cards. The course involved circling the island in the lake six times; Csima caught up with the leader as early as the second lap and gained a 15-minute lead over him on the water. Followed by Faustmann, Dürr, Martinou and Rousavy, the action then moved on to the final 10km run, a course with a turning point that had to be completed four times. By now, temperatures had risen to a summery 26–28 degrees. The running remained open right until the end. Cosima led until the fourth lap, followed by Nemeth, who quickly closed the gap; the two were set to battle it out for the World Championship title. Faustmann, with a strong run, also thought he was on the podium, before Dürr overtook him on the final lap with the second-fastest running time of the day to secure third place.

In the end, it was Nemeth who was crowned world champion, overtaking Csima in the final stretch with the fastest run of the day in a fantastic 36:43 minutes and securing the world title with a 30-second lead. For Nemeth, it seems to have been a one-off foray into the quadrathlon scene; he prefers to stick to triathlon. “Kayaking isn’t my sport,” he said in the post-race interview.

In the women’s race, the field was smaller in terms of numbers. Susanne Walter could practically celebrate a start-to-finish victory; she laid the groundwork on the bike, leaving her pursuers with nothing to counter it. It should be noted that Walter was feeling slightly under the weather but started anyway. Ellen Mielke then had to let her Hungarian rival Angela Badar-Csiszar pull away during the final run, but was nevertheless overjoyed to finish third overall.

The eight German participants were thus very successful, with one world champion and two third-place finishes.

All participants agreed that the organisers had run the competition perfectly and are hoping for a repeat next year.