Václav Marek
I was so sorry to hear the news that Václav Marek has passed away after his illness. Václav formed and led the European Quadrathlon Association from 1997, this eventually became the World Quadrathlon Association in 2001. When I first represented GB in Quadrathlon back in 2004 I went over to the World Championships in CZ, Václav greeted the GB Team with open arms, he was a wonderful human being, so kind and very passionate about his sport, his family helped him organize the World Championships and always made it a very special event, renowned for its post race parties!
The GB Team had a regular trip over to Sedlcany for many years, I feel very honored to have known Václav and have lots of wonderful memories, one year in particular is when Dan Corner and Helen Parkinson were crowned Overall World Champions in 2007! We certainly Celebrated in Wild Style having GB taken of the top podium places and many Age Group Golds too! … Thank You Václav for all you have done over your Years in Quadrathlon… he will be greatly missed.
Thanks to his efforts quadrathlon sport became popular in many countries. His excellent organizational work helped establishing quadrathlon races in many locations. Václav Marek was president of WQF until his illness in 2024.
WQF preserves the memory of Václav Marek. The National Trophy award – which is given every year to the most successful country – will be named Václav Marek National Trophy from 2025.
Special thanks to Mark Benton, David Jones and the Manvers Team for organising this great quad event, you are a wonderful ‘Team’ of people thank you for your enthusiasm and for inspiring so many to take to the water and embrace the challenge, you have put so many smiles on peoples faces at Manvers. As always the BQA are extremely grateful to everyone involved, we are a small sport, and its good to see so many competitors without a doubt it’s such a fabulous feel good event, enjoyed by everyone, from seasoned athletes to first timers and looking at the photos looks like you had a great day!
The Race this year was part of the BQA Trophy Series, but for the first time ever it was part of the World Quadrathlon Cup, so competitors were given BQA points plus WQF points, this is great to see so many British athletes with World Cup points. The GB team are now in 2nd place in the World Cup Trophy now “The Vaclav Merek National Trophy” this is given to country with the most the points at the end of the year. So huge well done to everyone who has raced so far this year! 
Onto the 30k bike stage and the course was just excellent. For me personally, I’d checked out the bike course on the previous Friday, so it was full gas all the way, tuck in, shrug the shoulders narrow and get aero, every second counts. The loop out of Waddingham and through Snitterby was just excellent fun. 49:24 later and I’m rolling back into the sports center, thinking now about the kayak leg.
So here we go, the day’s getting done now, just the run to go, 5k’s for the sprint and 9.8k’s for the middle distance event.
Kassel, a beautiful city in the middle of Germany, is a place of parks, wooded green hills, lakes, a river, health spas, great food, museums, culture and people who are just so friendly. It is home to just over 200,000 people and was where the brothers Grimm spent all of their young adult lives from their early teenage years, gathering up folk tales and publishing them into the world renowned fairy tales that we all know today, such as Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood. It is also home to the wonderful Bernd Scheller and his fantastic team, who did such a fantastic job of organizing and running a hugely successful European Sprint Distance Quadrathlon Championships.
It consisted of a 500m swim across the river and back on a triangular anti-clockwise course. Next was a short run from the beach leading to the bike transition and then onto the 18k bike course, with 3 laps of a fast and flat course, based upon the Auedamm, the riverside road, lined with boat clubs and restaurants, that was closed off to vehicles, providing a safe course to race along.
The next leg is way more familiar for me personally and the computer reads 39-40kph, six sets of dead turns, one at each end of three laps and then back in, rack the bike and push on again.
The race overall was won by the incredible all round athlete and multi world champion Ferenc Csima of Hungary, with a time of 1:21:28. The women’s race was won by home club athlete Anna-Lena Klee, who put in amazing split times across all events and won with a time of 1:31:13.
On the bike leg I was pleased to put in a 1:00:40 time, so under the hour with the running to and from transition removed.
I finished first in my age category of 1956-1965 birth year (O60’s) with 3:33:30 to get age group World Champion.
Wishing you all a Very Happy Christmas … Safe Training over the winter months, look after those bodies and train well! We look forward to a very exciting 2025 Quad Season!
Sadly our National Trophy Series was down to just 3 races this year, Shrewsbury has finally folded completely, which is very sad news, and Bude was also cancelled due to lack of support. Thankfully we still had 3 excellent races in our calendar, The Brigg Bomber (World Cup Event also) Dearne Valley Sprint, and The Brigg Sprint. On behalf of the BQA I’d like to say a Huge THANK YOU to all our Race organizers and volunteers, who work so hard each year to put on these events for us, it is a big commitment and we really do appreciate your time! Thanks also to all the Sponsors who support them, and to you the BQA Members for you annual fees, which are vital so we can run the BQA Governing Body and more important provide the ever important Insurance fees to be able to support the Race Organizers…. Big Thanks! I would also like to say an enormous thanks to John Kavanagh who produces the BQA and WQF Tables after each race, this is a huge commitment and we are all very grateful … Thanks John  
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