Yesterday the Luxembourg Aquathlon Championships were held at the D’Coque national centre.
With the Luxembourgish title on the line at an indoor venue, it represented a good winter racing opportunity for a number of athletes in the region. A number of Luxembourg’s best triathletes were also on the start list.
Among the field were WTCS athletes Jeanne Lehair and Eva Daniels. Lehair switched her sporting nationality from France to Luxembourg in 2022. With 2022 WTCS race finishes of 8th in Montreal and 19th in Bermuda to her name, she was on balance the favourite going into the competition. As a side note, WTCS Bermuda was the first time she raced for Luxembourg.
Meanwhile, Eva Daniels’ best 2022 results included 4th at the Pontevedra World Cup and 16th at WTCS Montreal.
The aquathlon consisted of a 250m swim and a 1000m run and was contested over multiple rounds. The women followed a heat, semi-final, final format whereas the men also contested a quarter-final stage.
After Lehair and Daniels comfortably won their semi finals, the impending showdown became clear.
In the final Lehair led after the swim. Although Daniels closed a little over the course of the run, Lehair held on to win by 5 seconds. Both women’s performances in the final were the only sub-7 minute showings of the day. Lehair finished in 6:50 while Daniels completed the course in 6:55.
French Junior athlete Leonie Douche took bronze. Her final time was 7:04.
With eight heats to start the men’s competition, the first round was rather leisurely. By the time the men made it to the final, though, the pace quickened considerably.
Amaury Dietrich of France led throughout the men’s final but had to hold off a late fightback from Cedric Osterholt of Germany to seal the win.
Osterholt took silver while Lucas Cambresy of Luxembourg was third and won the Luxembourgish title.
Notably, WTCS athlete Bob Haller finished third in the the Luxembourgish men’s classification.
