WORLD CUP 2021 – SUMMARY OF THE SEASON

After the very short season in 2020 – when only 3 races could be organised because of the limitations and cancellations because of COVID – in 2021 again most of the planned races managed to go ahead. Athletes started in 7 World Cup races, in Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and Spain. According to the new rules the 3 best races counted for the final evaluation and athletes collected bonus points if they finished more than 3 races. The points were calculated again according to the rule implemented in 2019, where not the position but the time difference between the athletes is the basis for the calculation. In total 36 women and 153 men from 10 countries collected World Cup points in 2021.

In the case of the women’s races Lisa Teichert (GER) dominated the season again and won all the 4 races she started. She has collected a record number of 45 medals (37 of these gold) in Championship races and World Cup overall evaluation. The second place went to the 2019 World Cup winner Susanne Walter (GER), the third place for Csilla Sápi (HUN). In the men’s races the fighting between the competitors was very intense for the podium places on the Championship races. In 3 out of the 4 Championship races the difference was only some seconds between the top athletes. William Peters (BEL) defended his title on the Middle Distance World Championships in Tyn. The other 3 Championship races (in Bydgoszcz, Ratscher and Tiszafüred) and so the overall World Cup as well were won by Ferenc Csima (HUN) who, even at the age of 49 showed a strong performance. The second place went to Krzysztof Wolski (POL) the third to Leos Rousavy (CZE) both of them show were very consistent throughout the season.

The winner of Nations Trophy changed this year. In the previous years Hungary won this title but in this season Germany collected the most points and won the trophy for the first time. Second place went to the Czech Republic and third to Spain, where their 2021 race was again the World Cup race with the most total participants.