Quadrathlon is an abiding sport that includes four individual events: swimming, kayaking, cycling and running. The World Quadrathlon Federation is the highest governing body for quadrathlon. The sport demands lots of training as the events are incredibly intense.
The distance range, time duration, and events depend on the organizing body. Swimming and kayaking sports are replaced by cross country skiing and snowshoeing during winter. Swimming is generally performed in open water, where the distance varies from 750 meters to 4 km.
The kayaking event ranges from 4 km to 20 km. Kayaking is performed on various water sources such as canals, rivers or in a shallow lake. The cycling event is performed on the road within a distance from 20 km to 100 km, whereas the distance for running event varies from 5 km to 21 km. Cycling and kayaking event's order is interchangeable in a quadrathlon competition.
Quadrathlon is a tough, enduring sport which consists of swimming followed by running, and kayaking or cycling at the end (kayaking and cycling events are interchangeable).
Quadrathlon is usually conducted with various distance ranges. The standard norms, according to which the athletes compete are as follows -
- Quadrathlon Sprint Distances - 0.75 km swimming, 4 km kayaking, 20 km cycling and 5 km running
- Quadrathlon Middle Distances - 1.5 km swimming, 8 km kayaking, 40 km cycling and 10 km running
- Quadrathlon Long Distances - 4 km swimming, 20 km kayaking, 100 km cycling and 21 km running
The objective of each athlete is to finish the events in the least duration. The sport can be performed individually or in teams.
During the early 1980s, Sergio Ferrero initiated the first-ever Quadrathlon matches on Ibiza. Later in 1990, Ferrero established the World Quadrathlon Federation (WQF). The first-ever match of Quadrathlon included swimming for 5 meters, kayaking of 20 km followed by 100 km biking and running for 21.1 km.
After the first successful meeting, the swimming distance was reduced by 1 km in the quadrathlon event. With the increasing popularity of quadrathlon, under the guidance of Czech Vaclav Marek in 1997, the European Quadrathlon Federation (EQF) was formed.
In 2013, the European Championships were held in Lincolnshire in the United Kingdom. This championship was won by Steve Clark hailing from Great Britain and Lisa Maria Hirschfelder from Germany. The EQF organize the World Cup every year since 2001, where several countries participate.
Tetrathlon
It is a similar sport to quadrathlon and is composed of 4 out of 5 events of the pentathlon: swimming, running, pistol shooting and showjumping.
Triathlon
It is a three-event sport which consists of
swimming,
cycling and
running.,
Duathlon
It is another similar sport to triathlon, which involves running followed by cycling and again running.
Pentathlon
It comprises of 5 different events which include fencing, swimming 200 meters, showjumping (15 jumps) followed by a combined pistol shooting and a 3200-meter cross country running.
