The Championship 2025 men's results: Høgenhaug back to winning ways in Samorin

Denmark’s Kristian Høgenhaug produced a brilliant all-round display to take a dominant victory at The Championship, Challenge Family’s middle-distance showpiece in Samorin.

He swam well, asserted on the bike and was never really threatened. Third here last year, somewhat surprisingly this was his first win since Challenge Salou, back in April 2022.

While it was one-way traffic up front, there was a fantastic three-way sprint finish for second which was won by Henry Räppo (EST), just ahead of British duo Kieran Lindars and Will Draper.

Swim – Sprint start

It had been announced before race day that the swim would be shortened to 750 metres as the water temperature was below World Triathlon rules for 1.9km.

And it 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 and he would be cheered all around the course in what was his last pro race.

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.

Short course stars Justus Nieschlag (GER) and Henri Schoeman (RSA) came next, with Høgenhaug at this point in 10th but well in touch at +28 seconds.

Bike – Høgenhaug makes his move

Onto the bike then and Butters maintained his lead early on – but Høgenhaug was closing menacingly.

The roads were wet but it had at least stopped raining by now and by the 40km mark it was now Høgenhaug who was out on his own, just over half a minute in front of pre-race favourite Frederic Funk (GER), Butters and Bogdan Kovalenko (KAZ).

And Høgenhaug continued to pull clear, so much so that he had a lead of nearly two-and-a-half minutes over Funk at T2.

Just to put his bike leg into perspective, Høgenhaug did it in 1:56:21 and no one else in the top five went under two hours.

Run – Sprint finish!

The big question on the run was whether Høgenhaug would be threatened – but early indications suggested not.

His advantage went over three minutes by the 5km point and now it was Kovalenko who had moved ahead of Funk and into second.

Spotters on the course were saying Funk had an injury on his elbow that suggested he may have crashed at some point – and he would drop out of contention soon after..

But while Høgenhaug was making serene progress, an incredible battle was developing behind for the other two podium spots.

Høgenhaug crossed the line in 3:23:53 but the gap on him had closed as the others vied for silver and bronze.

It all came down to a mad dash to the line – Räppo taking second in 3:25:52, with Lindars at 3:25:53 and Draper on 3:25:56!

But arguably the biggest cheer of all was reserved for Varga as he completed his final race as a professional athlete when he crossed the finish line with his children.

Post-race reaction

“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 afterwards.

“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.”