Aquathlon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The sport of aquathlon consists of a continuous, two-stage race involving swimming followed by running.
The International Triathlon Union (ITU) and its member federation organizations sanction competitions and govern the sport.
The ITU holds an aquathlon world championship, typically held in the week before and at the same location as the ITU Standard Course Triathlon World Championship.
Holding an aquathlon rather than a triathlon can be an attractive option for a race director because:
- It reduces race logistics by removing one of the legs from a triathlon.
- It reduces the amount of space needed to hold a race limiting it to a rather small and manageable area. Bicycling often takes up the largest area of the three legs of a triathlon making it, in a practical sense, the most difficult leg for a race director to manage.
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[edit] Sometimes called an aquathon
An aquathlon is sometimes called an aquathon. The ITU and USA Triathlon sanctioning organizations generally use the term aquathlon.
[edit] Relationships to similar sports
Modern pentathlon is similar to an aquathlon in that both include swimming and running. But swimming and cross-country running are only two of the five events which make up the modern pentathlon, and these are held as distinct, noncontiguous events. Within the penthathlon sport the term biathle is also used for (training) races containin swimming and running. These however contain distance stemming from pentathlon races, for instance 200m swimming 3k running. Aquathlon follows triathlon distances. For instance 1k swim - 5k run at the 2004 world champs in Queenstown, or 2.5k run - 1k swim - 2.5 k run in Lausanne 2006.
Aquathlons are most similar to triathlons, with the key difference being the lack of a cycle leg.
The aquathlon competitive field generally overlaps with that of triathlon, the sport from which it originated. Aquathlons are also popular among triathletes as training events providing a multi-sport open water race experience that can be difficult to find outside of a triathlon race situation.
[edit] World Champions
2007 male - Sjoerd-Jan van der Pluijm (98+ category)
2007 female - Ilona Somers (18- age-category)
2006 male - Richard Stannard
2006 female - Sara McLarty
2005 female- Shelia Taromina
2005 male- Johnny Collett
2004 female- Samantha Warriner
2004 male- Shane Reed
2003 female- Carla Morena
2003 male- Richard Stannard
2002 female- Sandra Soldan
2002 male- Kris Gemmell
2001 female- Siri Lindley
2001 male- Ivan Rana
2000 female- Pilar Hidalgo
2000 male- Matt Reed
1999 female- Rina Hill
1999 male- Shane Reed
1998 female- Rina Hill
1998 male- Shane Reed
[edit] Aquathlon (underwater wrestling)
Aquathlon is wrestling in the water. “Aqua” means water in Latin. “Athlon” means wrestling. Aquathlon was created by Igor Ostrovsky, a coach of swimming and underwater sports. Aquathlon includes several disciplines: Aquathlon classic style Aquathlon free style Aquathlon scuba style Aquathlon combat style Aquathlon gymnastics
[edit] History
1974 – 82 Igor Ostrovsky, a coach of swimming and underwater sports at the Moscow Technological Institute created and developed Aquathlon. 1982 The first Aquathlon scuba style competition was held in Moscow. 1984 The first Aquathlon club was established in Moscow. 1985 The first Aquathlon classic style competition was held in Moscow. 1987 Igor Ostrovsky and his students demonstrated Aquathlon combat style in the Olympic swimming pool in Moscow. 1988 The first Aquathlon free style competition was held in Moscow. 1989 The Aquathlon Association was established in Moscow in order to associate all the Aquathlon clubs in the USSR. 1990 Aquathlon was recognized by the USSR Underwater Sports Federation. 1993 The first International Aquathlon competition was held in Moscow. 1996 The International Aquathlon Association was established. 2002 The first European Aquathlon championship was held in Shokino (Russia).
[edit] Statutes of the International Aquathlon Academy
1. The International Aquathlon Academy referred to herein as the IAA shall be a non-political international organization. 2. The main objectives of the IAA shall be: - to give assistance to the International Aquathlon Association and the Aquathlon Commission of CMAS to develop Aquathlon globally and to formulate and update International Aquathlon rules and competition regulations. - to educate and train Aquathlon wrestlers, Aquathlon instructors, coaches and referees - to organize and hold courses, international seminars and training camps 3. The IAA shall create its own branches. 4. The IAA incomes shall come from payments for studying on courses and at seminars, and for participation in training camps; donations from sponsors; rights from TV broadcasts of official IAA events; from license fees from branches and from other sources.
For further information, please visit the Aquathlon website at aquathlon-int.org
