Everything You Need To Know About Arena Games Triathlon powered by Zwift Switzerland 2023

Another new destination and a fresh crop of World Championship hopefuls. It promises to be another epic weekend for Arena Games Triathlon powered by Zwift.

CAMPUS Sursee Sportarena, the home of Swiss Triathlon, is the venue for the second event in the 2023 World Championship Series on Sunday, March 12, and there is a lot on the line.

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Headlining will be Henri Schoeman and Justus Nieschlag for the men and Anabel Knoll and Zsanett Bragmayer for the women with everybody keen to discover how the athletes compare to Montreal winners Chase McQueen and Gina Sereno.

Here we take a look at everything you need to know ahead of Arena Games Triathlon powered by Zwift Switzerland.

Zsanett The Underdog?

Zsanett Bragmayer was a real surprise package at Arena Games Triathlon powered by Zwift Singapore in 2022. That’s event was, of course, the Grand Final of the World Championship Series and had top tier stars such as Jess Learmonth, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Beth Potter in the field.

Yet it was the more unheralded Bragmayer that shone brightest on the day to take the event win as Potter secured the Series title.

The Hungarian proved she has the right engine for these type of events, but how about in these conditions?

Singapore was hot, humid…and outdoors, including an open water swim. Sursee will be indoors with a pool swim. Can she be as dominant again?

An Intimate Setting

Switzerland is a new country for Super League Triathlon to visit as the CAMPUS Sursee Sportarena makes its Arena Games Triathlon debut.

It is going to be very different as well. In terms of psychical space it is the smallest venue to have held an Arena Games event, but with a sellout crowd expected that could well generate a cauldron-like atmosphere.

For the first time in Arena Games history, the athletes will swim in a 25m pool rather than 50m, so there is greater emphasis on turns. That’s because the treadmills and bikes will be behind one another on a covered section of the rest of the pool, with a platform raising one above the other.

There are a lot of unknowns and its another unique Super League quirk that every venue challenges athletes in a different way.

King Justus I

All hail the original King of Arena Games. Justus Nieschlag is back, and no doubt means business once again.

The winner of the first ever Arena Games Triathlon event in Rotterdam in 2020 – in a field that featured the likes of Jonny Brownlee and Javier Gomez – this format has proved a real sweet spot for Nieschlag, and arguably given him the best results of his career.

In five Arena Games appearances he has notched two wins and five podium spots, which is a remarkable record.

His swim is immense, but so too his transitions, which have often been the deciding factor.

Is he in that kind of form or shape this time out? Only time will tell.

Henri’s On A Roll

Henri Schoeman is one of the more popular characters on the triathlon circuit and so people are understandably glad to see him back after a torrid few years of illness and injury that threatened to force into a very premature retirement.

He’s always been a Super League star, so it is fitting that his way back to prominence is paved again by SLT, and in this case Arena Games.

Schoeman doesn’t really need to do the race in Switzerland. With one result plus the final counting toward the World Championship Series title, and a second place finish in Montreal last time out, only a would put him into a better position heading into London.

But Schoeman is hungry after so long out. Hungry to race, hungry to get his sharpness back again.

Interestingly, he is one of the few guys who will not be even remotely intimidated by Nieschlag’s swim, which adds a whole new dynamic to the racing.