Jonas Held - triathlete in the Runster.de team

Triathlon is an endurance sport that places particularly high demands on athletes due to its three disciplines: swimming, cycling and running. 18-year-old Jonas Held from Chemnitz is a passionate triathlete. His specialty is the cross triathlon.

At the age of 5 Jonas did his seahorse and from then on went to weekly swim training. He soon got bored with swimming and at the age of 9 he had the opportunity to participate in a children's triathlon for fun. This inspired him so much that the change to triathlon followed. During his school time in Chemnitz he trained in the SC Chemnitz Triathlon under the direction of Grit Richter. Already in the 10th grade, when he still lived in Chemnitz, he trained a lot at the SC Riesa and his current coach Marco Kalwak, was at that time already a good contact in terms of training structure and training planning.

After graduating from secondary school, Jonas had the goal to do his high school diploma. Because of his sportive closeness to the Sportclub Riesa, the possibility to live there in the sport boarding school and to continue to be coached by Marco Kalwak, he decided to continue his school career at the Berufliches Schulzentrum für Technik und Wirtschaft Riesa. Riesa is the ideal place for him to combine sports and school. The fun triathlete turned into a serious competitive athlete who made a conscious decision in the summer of 2015: "all or nothing". As a result, his current daily schedule is very well organized to meet the demands of sports and school. Daily training and time at school plus after-school and preparation time leave Jonas little time for other interests.

His parents play an important role in this. Despite the fact that he lives in a boarding school, he receives full support from his parents in Chemnitz, and his parents are also on hand to advise him on competition planning, together with his coach. His younger sister Annalena, who came to triathlon through him, now also lives and trains in Riesa and likes to support him during training. During longer running sessions, she also likes to accompany him on the bike, as Jonas says: " It doesn't get so boring when she's there!" In his home town of Chemnitz, he likes to do the bike laps with his father and sister, and his home mountain is the route to Augustusburg Castle. But the main training takes place with his sports colleagues from the Riesa Sports Club. In the Riesa stadium, they hone their running performance on the track and train how to switch quickly between disciplines. The swim training takes place in the swimming hall Riesa and of course there is also a joint bike and athletic training. The training takes place daily. In the winter, work is mainly done on basic endurance and strength, and in the spring/summer the training changes to Jonas running intervals and doing mountain runs.

His motto: "You never lose, either you win or you learn!"

His ambition and continuous training are reflected in his successes over the past few years:

2014:

  • Place Saxony Championship Triathlon Youth A
  • Place Adelsberg Bikemarathon
  • Saxony champion youth A (AK 16/17)
  • Crosstriathlon O-See Challenge in Zittau

2015:

  • German Champion Cross-Duathlon
  • Place Saxony Championship Sprint Distance Juniors 2015
  • Saxony champion juniors Olympic distance 2015
  • Place at Cross-Triathlon Filzteich
  • Vice European Champion Juniors in Cross-Triathlon at Schluchsee July 2015
  • German champion in cross-triathlon over the XTERRA distance

In 2015, he is honored in the district of Meißen as the young athlete of the year .

2016:

  • XTerra Belgium, unfortunately race aborted due to technical defects on the mountain bike.

Planned competitions 2016:

  • "Heavy24" 24h MTB race.
  • XTERRA German Tour Schorfheide
  • XTERRA German Tour Zeulenroda - DM in Cross-Triathlon
  • XTERRA Germany O-See Challenge in Zittau - XTERRA European Championship
  • XTERRA Denmark
  • XTERRA Maui World Championship
  • Various league competitions for the SC Riesa Triathlon

For this year, Jonas hopes to qualify for the World Cross Triathlon Championships in Maui/ Hawaii in the Juniors, which will take place on October 23, 2016.

When asked why Jonas chose the cross variant of triathlon, he answers; "Road biking is too boring for me, I just like to ride my mountain bike through the forest and I also prefer running on trails than on the road, it's more exciting". Nevertheless, he uses the road bike at the beginning of the season to build up the basics.

In terms of bike technology, he relies on his mountain bike "ELITE" from the company CUBE. The road kilometers in training he also likes to put back sometimes on the Cube "LIGHTNING".

The running shoes of the company New Balance were provided to him by the Runster Shop. The trail shoe New Balance Vazee and the New Balance M 1400 D RB4 accompany him this season during training and competition.

For the coming year, in addition to further sporting successes, Jonas plans to graduate from school with a successful high school diploma. After that Jonas would like to study at the police academy. On the one hand, this will allow him to continue to practice the sport at a high level and get a solid education.

We wish Jonas many more sporting successes, an injury-free and mishap-free 2016 season and that his sporting and private goals and wishes come true.

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