Having just entered the second half of the season, Pieter Heemeryck still holds a strong lead in the CHALLENGEFAMILY World Bonus. His second place in CHALLENGEPRAGUE at the weekend earned Heemeryck a further 200 points and he now has a total of 1.600. In the women’s ranking, Daniela Bleymehl is still in the lead, but Radka Kahlefeldt is closing in on both Bleymehl and runner-up Lucy Charles, after the Czech triathlete took the win in Prague.
Heemeryck appears to be the absolute favourite for the CHALLENGEFAMILY World Bonus after his second place in Prague. It was a tough race and his sights were set on a win but he had to settle for second place. “During the run, I was only thinking about the World Bonus. If it wasn’t for the ranking, I might have come fourth or fifth. I was just focussing on the points I could earn and kept pushing.”
After points at CHALLENGEDAYTONA, CHALLENGESALOU, CHALLENGEGRANCANARIA, THECHAMPIONSHIP, CHALLENGEGERAARDSBERGEN and CHALLENGEPRAGUE, Pieter Heemeryck is in the lead with 1.600 points in total. Andreas Dreitz is in second place with 1.050 points and Romain Guillaume currently holds third place with 950 points. Both Dreitz and Guillaume didn’t race in Prague.
Florian Angert took the win at CHALLENGEPRAGUE. His strong race earned him 250 points, which put his total to 600 points and a shared fifth place in the rankings. Pablo Dapena came third in Prague and earned 150 points. He now has a total of 550 points and an eighth place in the rankings.
You can check the current male rankings here: https://www.challenge-family.com/world-bonus/
Women’s ranking: Kahlefeldt closing in
There has been no change to the women’s ranking after CHALLENGEPRAGUE. It’s Daniela Bleymehl who is still in the lead with 1450 points and Lucy Charles in second place with 1250 points. Both women chose not to compete in Prague after their podium positions at CHALLENGEROTH three weeks ago.
It was Radka Kahlefeldt who took the win at CHALLENGEPRAGUE. She earned 250 points and has a current total of 1150. She’s in third position in the rankings but closing in on Bleymehl and Charles. Lisa Norden, who came second in Prague, earned her first 200 points of the season. She now shares 23th place in the rankings. With finishing third Eva Wutti earned 150 points to place 12th in the World Bonus ranking.
You can check the current female rankings here: https://www.challenge-family.com/world-bonus/
Seven races left, double points at Daytona
The 2019 CHALLENGEFAMILY World Bonus still has seven more races to go: CHALLENGEALMERE-AMSTERDAM, CHALLENGEDAVOS, CHALLENGEMADRID, CHALLENGEPAGUERA-MALLORCA, CHALLENGEANHUI and CHALLENGEDAYTONA. The ultimate race of the season, CHALLENGEDAYTONA, is not just the last chance to earn points for the 2019 World Bonus but double points last year meant it was also the first race to earn points for this year’s bonus at the event in 2018.
Photo Credit by Jan Brychta
CHALLENGEFAMILY World Bonus Explained
CHALLENGEFAMILY has introduced a pro athlete bonus scheme to its races. The initiative provides professional athletes with the opportunity to race for a share of a USD 150,000 end-of-season bonus as well as a prize purse at the races. The USD 150k bonus will pay five deep across both men and women with the top ranked pro taking home $30k, second will earn $20k and third will win $14k, fourth $8k and fifth $3k. Ranking will be decided through a points system based on placings earned.
