Frederic Funk (GER) has posted the world’s fastest middle distance bike split over 90km at The Championship 2024 in Šamorín, Slovakia with a time of 1:48:48. This was enough to put him in second place on the podium behind Kyle Smith (NZL) who himself posted the world’s second-fastest time ever over 113km of swim, bike, run in 3:27:10.
“I knew before the race my bike shape is better than ever but I wouldn’t have thought I could go that fast,” said Funk. “It’s crazy how sub two hours was a big thing a few years ago and now I went sub 1:50h. Super happy with my performance despite it not being enough to win the race.”
The high standard of competition at Challenge Family’s flagship event resulted in many professionals flying up the PTO World Rankings. As a Gold Tier race with a points ranking of 95.61, the race delivered high points to the top performers. The biggest climber was Kristian Høgenhaug (DEN) who went up 19 points into 23rd. Smith and Laura Madsen (DEN) both earned 17 points, putting them into 14th and 26th respectively while women’s champion, India Lee (GBR) returned to the top 10 and Funk rose to 8th. Other notable climbers were third place Anna Bergsten (SWE) who climbed 13 places to 39th and Kaidi Kivioja (EST) who jumped nine spots into 24th.
“As a qualification-only event, The Championship is now firmly embedded as a must-race event for professionals and age groupers alike, as they look to pit themselves against the best of the best Challenge Family athletes,” said Challenge Family CEO, Jort Vlam. “This was embodied this year by the record attendance and high calibre field, all wanted to race at the iconic x-bionic sphere venue.”
For full results of The Championship 2024 visit https://www.datasport.de/anmeldeservice/thechampionshipsamorin2024/ergebnisse.
Qualification for The Championship 2025 is already underway at the Challenge Family ‘s 35 races in 27 countries with race day set for 17-18 May 2025. For further information, visit www.thechampionship.de.
