First international race in 2024 in Gyékényes

The small Hungarian city at the Croatian border hosted the first international quadrathlon race in the 2024 season. The place was already known for some athletes because the long distance World Championship last year started also from this city. Now the European Championship on sprint distance was organised here.
Weather conditions were already summerly with temperature around 25 degrees. However, the water was not warm enough to swim without neoprene. The athletes started at noon in the crystal-clear water with the 750 m swimming. In the men’s race Ferenc Csima (HUN) and Leonardo Giusti (ITA) took the lead followed by Gyula Herr (HUN) – who is one of the organisers of the race – Peter Kapitan (SVK) and Attila Kiss (HUN). The close competition in the front between the two leaders continued also on the bike course which was on closed roads in the city with two laps on flat asphalt. Here the leaders performed the 20 km in less then 30 minutes (average speed 41 km/h), but the chasers also performed near 40 km/h. Kiss came up to the 3rd place in his favourite discipline. The gap between Csima and Giusti increased to several minutes on the kayak course where an island had to be circled twice. Here Lukas Šuster (SVK) overtook Kiss and started the running on the 3rd place. In the 2 lap running course the first 2 places didn’t change any more, however Giusti performed the best running time of the day. It was a huge fight for the bronze medal. At the very end of the race Kiss was able to overtake Suster and secured his podium place.

In the women’s race Susanne Walter (GER) dominated. Especially her bike performance with just 31 and a half minute was unexpectedly good but also her running was very strong. For the second place there was a competition between Andrea Kovácová (SVK) and Csilla Sápi (HUN). Finally, the young Slovakian secured her second place with her better kayak and running performance. Besides single race there were also relay teams at the start. The Slovakian Dunajklub from Bratislava came with many young athletes who started for the first time on a quadrathlon race. The atmosphere in Gyékényes was excellent. The mayor of the city welcomed all athletes personally at the finish line. The organisers hosted all participants to eat a traditional Hungarian bean stew (babgulyás) after the race.