It was Kristian Høgenhaug (DEN) and Hanne de Vet (BEL) who took a shortened swim and cold conditions in their stride and claimed victory at The Championship 2025 in a race that delivered plenty of drama, excitement and emotion.
The professional men’s swim started with two distinct groups navigating the canal — one led down the centre by Hannes Butters (GER), the other tracking the left-hand side with Richard Varga (SVK) at the front. As the swim progressed, the groups merged, but Butters maintained his advantage, holding a clear five-metre lead. He was first out of the water in 7:53 with a 15-second gap over Varga, who led the chase group.
Butters took an early lead on the bike, staying ahead of Kieran Lindars (GBR) and a large chase group led by Harry Palmer (GBR). Høgenhaug pushed to the front of the group, bringing Frederic Funk (GER) with him. They caught Butters and, along with Bogdan Kovalenko (KAZ), formed a lead group of four, keeping the required 20m distance under Challenge Family rules. Before the Danube bridge, Høgenhaug pulled ahead, gradually opening a gap. Funk followed, with Kovalenko not far behind. Despite a headwind, Høgenhaug held a steady pace and extended his lead to around 800m, arriving into T2 with a 2:32 lead over Funk.
The men’s run delivered some of the most exciting racing of the season, while Høgenhaug’s lead was never under threat, the race for the final two podium positions couldn’t have been tighter with a chase group of Lindars, Henry Räppo (EST), Will Draper (GBR) and Kurt McDonald (AUS) chasing him down. In the end just one second separated second place Räppo and third place Lindars while Draper was only three seconds further back in fourth. Final finish times were 3:23:53 for Høgenhaug, 3:25:52 for Räppo and 3:25:53 for Lindars.
“I don’t know if you ever see a win coming but I felt incredible in the lead up to this race so I knew if I had the same legs that I had in the training I could do really well,” said Høgenhaug. “I knew from last year I couldn’t just do a short effort on the bike, it had to be long to tire the other guys. When I settled in a pace it was still pretty good watts. Normally I’m a little careful on the first lap of the run but this time I decided to go really hard to try and extend the lead and then I could more or less enjoy it on the last lap. Thanks for an amazing event, you always feel so welcome here.”
In the women’s race, Sara Perez Sala (ESP) set the early pace and maintained her lead throughout the swim, exiting the water first in 8:57. Behind her, Daisy Davies (GBR) and Elisabetta Curridori (ITA) followed closely, while a chase group led by de Vet and Chloe Sparrow (GBR) worked to close the gap. With the front three already establishing a margin heading into transition, the race was shaping up for a battle on the bike.
A fall in transition put Perez Sala out of the mix, and Davies took the lead, a position she maintained for the first half of the bike with de Vet in second. At just after halfway, they were caught by Anastacia Nielsen (DEN) and Sparrow who took turns in the lead before Davies once again put the hammer down, followed by de Vet and they entered T2 with a two-minute buffer. Out on the run, Davies controlled the first half but by the halfway point de Vet took the lead and was on the way to take the greatest win of her career, crossing the line in 3:48:56. Davies took second in 3:50:09 while Nielsen took third in 3:53:46.
“I felt good but put to put all three disciplines together is always hard, but today was apparently the day!” said de Vet. “I felt Davies and I were quite fast and I knew that I had to get into my rhythm and not stress too much early on. I was catching her second by second and I felt like I was doing a good job but I didn’t want to get too excited too early and the last 10km she kept on the pressure so it definitely was not easy! It’s really cool to win an event like this, it’s been on my bucket list for a long time so to put everything together at an event like this is unbelievable.”
One of the most emotional moments of the day was marked by Richard Varga’s final finish as a professional athlete with the crowds cheering him home as he crossed the finish line with his two young daughters marking the end of a remarkable triathlon career.