Bob Smartt wins World Aquabike Championship

Posted 9/21/21

Years of training and perseverance paid off for Powell High School girls’ swim coach Bob Smartt, when he won the World Aquabike Championship for 65-69 year-old men in Almere, Netherlands, on …

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Bob Smartt wins World Aquabike Championship

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Years of training and perseverance paid off for Powell High School girls’ swim coach Bob Smartt, when he won the World Aquabike Championship for 65-69 year-old men in Almere, Netherlands, on Sept. 12.

The aquabike race differs from a triathlon, as aquabike consists of dual events. The first part of the race is a 3.8-kilometer (2.4-mile) swim along with a 180-kilometer (112-mile) bike ride. Smartt finished the entire race in a time of 6:04.

He originally began doing triathlons in the early 1980s, but he found that, because of his size, the running was the most difficult part of the event as he would always get passed by smaller runners.

Due to COVID-19, competitors began in groups of four swimmers rather than a mass start, Smartt said, with groups leaving every 15 seconds in order to space them out. Each competitor wore a timing chip on their ankle.

With swimming being his best event, Smartt was able to finish the 2.4 miles of swimming in 1:01.10 and placed 20th overall for that portion of the race.

However, that is when he ran into trouble as he transitioned to the biking portion of the race.

“I am lousy at transitions and that part of the race took me over 5 minutes to run from the water to a changing tent, get out of my wetsuit and into bicycle clothes, run to my bike, and then run with the bike to the beginning of the bike course,” Smartt said.

Moving into the biking portion of the race, Smartt rode a time trial bike, which allowed him to have a more aerodynamic posture while he went around the two-lap 56-mile course.

“I was very pleased that I was feeling good on the bike and able to do a negative split, riding the second bike lap faster than the first,” Smartt said.

Overall for the championship, Smartt placed 28th out of 150 competitors.

Unfortunately for Smartt, he was unable to visit any attractions as his three days in the Netherlands were spent focusing on the race and then trying to get back to coach the Panthers the following weekend. Smartt said he plans to take a well-deserved break before beginning preparations for next year’s world championship in January.

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