World Cup Series 2013

The World Cup wasn’t to be decided until the final race of this year …. Bude! The Race would decided whether the World Cup went back to the Czech Leoš Roušavý or go for the first time to German Stefan Teichert. Michal Hasa had also been in the lead and veteran Miroslav Poborský had won two championship races a third win may well of put him in the lead too. Overall, the Czech athletes were strong and on form, four of the first six places went to them. Finally, however, Stefan Teichert won the last two World Cup races and took the Championship from Leoš Roušavý.

In the women, the Germans were again very strong and took five of the first six places. Lisa Hirschfelder secured numerous victories and podium finishes with the most points. Second place went to the repeated Cup winner Ellen Mielke, who also collected points through numerous top rankings. In third Katrin Burow, the Berliner with two champion titles. The best non-German was the young talented Natália Paulik from Hungary in fourth place.

New this year, the points have been modified for the International Championship Race and the last World Cup race, there were 20 points more for each place (ie instead of 100 for a win, there were 120 points). The objective was to upgrade the championship race, ie where the best athletes race, and to keep the tension in the cup until the last race of the season.

A total of 10 races were scheduled, one of which had to be canceled because of the withdrawal of a sponsor. The best four results count, so that gives equality of opportunity, as Quadrathlon is not a professional sport and athletes with less budget, cannot afford to travel far.

On the Spanish island of Ibiza, the first World Cup event was held and won by the two Spaniards Vicente Roig Riera and María José Morell Salguero. The next race was Brigg England, The Middle Distance European Championships – this was won by our GB Athlete Steve Clark (GBR) and Lisa Hirschfelder.

Steinberg Germany, was hit by bad weather, the swimming had to be canceled and the paddling route was shortened. In the harsh conditions Leoš Roušavý and Lisa Hirschfelder took the top podium places. A week later at Lake Balaton Hungary, this time with high temperatures Leoš Roušavý won and in the women Natália Paulik.

The first major highlight of the World Cup over the sprint distance was in Tyn nad Vltavou Czech Republic this showed that Mr. Miroslav Quadrathlon Podborský, is still very hard to beat, even though he is over 40! Zuzana Kocumová (CZE) secured the title in the ladies. Also in early August Podborský won the Sprint Championships in Slovakia Šamorín and Diana Tešovicová (SVK) took the Ladies title. The town of Wolsztyn Poland held its first World Cup race, the winners were Leoš Roušavý and Lisa Hirschfelder.

The second major highlight – over the middle distance was the World Championships they were held at Ratscher Germany, a beautiful course on mountain lake. After a hard fort battle the two Germans Stefan Teichert and Antje Fiebig won the Championships. Finally  the last World Cup Race was in Bude, where Stefan Teichert and Lisa Hirschfelder took well deserved wins! , These victories in the last race gave them the World Cup Overall Trophies.

There were also great performances in the age groups,  two German athletes stood out here: First, Stefan Barthel, 70 years old took part in three World Cup races leaving many a young athlete behind. Secondly, Peter Appelt, 64 years compared to Barthel as a youngster, took part in seven races!

A total of 209 athletes raced in the World Cup Series. The most athletes on the start line were Great Britain with 50 starters, followed by the Germans (38) and Slovaks (37). A total of 13 nations were represented in the World Cup Series, with the 72 Germans, 55 British and 43 Slovaks.

A Great Season … hears hopeing for an even better 2014, and lets see if we can get a super strong succesfull GB Team visiting Europe for two of those World Cup Races … were good enough to be up there with the best Quadrathletes in the World!

Men

1 Stefan Teichert (GER) -450
2 Leoš Roušavý (CZE) – 420
3 Michal Hasa (CZE) – 400
4 Ian Smith (GBR) -250
5 Podborský Miroslav (CZE) -240

Women

1 Lisa Hirschfelder (GER) – 440
2 Ellen Mielke (GER) – 350
3 Katrin Burow (GER) – 220
4 Natália Paulik (HUN) – 210
5 Undine Harrier (GER) – 170

2013 World Cup Series Results

http://www.quadrathlon-online.de/ergebnisse/2013/13-w-cup.pdf