When he did his first triathlon race back in 2007, Lasse Nygaard-Priester knew immediately that the combination of swimming, cycling and running was his sport. The 21 year old native of Hamburg has improved a lot since then: he trains at the Olympic base Saarbrücken and dedicates his life to the sport.

He does so successfully: He finished the sprint European Championship (750 m swimming, 20 km cycling, 5 km running) in Düsseldorf as the best German starter on sixth position and qualified for the mixed team World Championship relay at ITU World Triathlon Hamburg in July.

In this format that is to become Olympic in 2020, national teams compete against each other in teams of four (2 women, 2 men) in a 300 m swim, 7 km bike ride and 1.6 km run that are done consecutively by every athlete.

“The start in Hamburg is a big dream come true, it was a special race for me, especially because I grew up nearby“, said Lasse Nygaard-Priester after the race and was satisfied that “I finally got to race in Hamburg on STEVENS Xenon. It was really cool to speed through Hamburg with the Hamburg coat of arms on the bike.“

Though place ten was not exactly what the relay team had been hoping for, the young athletes showed nevertheless a lot of potential that is to be developed further until the Olympic Games take place. Lasse Nygaard-Priester’s next race swill be the military World Championship in Warendorf and the German Championship in Grimm before heading for the U23 World Championship in Rotterdam.