Leśniewski Wins Triple Ultra Triathlon Worlds

Majkel Leśniewski won the Triple Ultra Triathlon WM 2026, the IUTA triple distance world championship, in Bad Radkersburg, Austria. He is the first Polish winner of the title since 2018, when Robert Karaś took it.

The distance that breaks people

A triple ultra triathlon is three times the full IRONMAN distance: 11.4 km (7.1 miles) of swimming, 540 km (335 miles) on the bike and 126.6 km (78.7 miles) of running. The swim is held in a 50 metre pool, and the bike and run courses are broken into short loops. That is the standard format for International Ultra Triathlon Association events.

Leśniewski reached the finish in 36 hours, 14 minutes and 4 seconds for first place. He finished 26 hours inside the cut-off set by the organisers, which expired at 8:00 on Monday.

No staff, no sponsors, family on the course

The decorated names in this field arrive with budgets, sponsor teams, psychologists and private physiotherapists. Leśniewski prepared as an amateur, training around a full-time job.

His entire technical and medical support on the course was his family: his partner Jagoda with their five year old daughter Oliwia, his brother Kevin with his wife Dominika, and his brother Martin with his partner Karolina. The only outside backing came from a local businessman, Łukasz Banaszkiewicz of the firm Hurst, who lent a car and paid for the race kit.

A night time low: an injured knee over the last 40 kilometres

The route to gold was not clean. Stomach problems came first, with energy gels being rejected. After more than 80 km (50 miles) of running through the night came a serious injury: the knee gave out. The pain was strong enough that he sat down in the middle of the road, unable to continue. His family massaged the leg in the tent at their base and applied kinesiology tape. Leśniewski covered the final 40 km (25 miles) of the run on a strapped, injured leg.

Why it matters

Bad Radkersburg is one of the few events that stage official IUTA world championships, this year over the double and the triple distance. The format remains a niche next to full-distance IRONMAN racing.

Leśniewski’s result is the first Polish title in the discipline in seven years. At the same event, over the shorter distance, Alicja Pyszka and Sebastian Bartosik also won.