We can save you some reading here: Csongor Lehmann (HUN) is probably going to win this weekend’s Tiszaujvaros World Cup. The home star struck gold in 2025, 2024 and 2023… and 2022 and 2021. While the latter two were technically Europe Cups, they still burnish the undisputed champion of Tiszaujvaros’ credentials.
The format is one he has mastered, with a sprint distance semi-final on Saturday determining the final for Sunday. The final will also take place over the sprint distance but has a slightly different course. There will be the same claustrophobic three-lap 750m swim as the semi-final but the eight-lap 20km bike and four-lap 5km run bring the field into deep crowds that typically roar Lehmann on with greater volume every time they see him.
Before catching all the action from Sunday’s final live on TriathlonLive, with the men starting at 17:15 (CEST), find out some of the names that will try to break Lehmann’s vice grip on Tiszaujvaros and what makes it such a daunting task.
Once upon a time…
Once upon a time, long ago, other male athletes used to win in Tiszaujvaros. Indeed, back in 2019 a fresh-faced 20-year-old Lehmann only finished 4th. To put that into perspective, the last time Lehmann did not win the event Eliud Kipchoge had yet to run the first sub-2-hour marathon, Avengers: Endgame was dominating the box office, and World Triathlon was not even called World Triathlon (old school fans will remember it as the International Triathlon Union, a moniker it held until 2020).
All this is to say we’ve forgotten what it is like for someone else to win in Tiszaujvaros, and Csongor Lehmann has forgotten what it is like to lose there. Moreover, the double WTCS medallist arrives in good form having finished 4th at the WTCS opener in Samarkand. Short of a mechanical, injury or divine intervention, it will take an exceptional performance to beat him.
Hungarian rivals
Perhaps the greatest challenge to Lehmann will come from his own teammates. Márk Dévay (HUN) earned the bronze medal in Tiszaujvaros last year and has had a promising start to 2026; last time out he placed 5th at the European Championships in Tarragona. Dévay is widely regarded as one of the best swimmers in the sport and could potentially break clear in the first discipline, although Lehmann joined him in the breakaway in last year’s final.
World U23 Championships medallist Gergely Kiss (HUN) will be another to watch, as will Bence Bicsák (HUN), one of two WTCS medallists besides Lehmann in the field. Admittedly, Bicsák’s WTCS medal came back in the 2010s, but he was a silver medallist at last year’s European Championships. On the right day, he could pose a real danger to Lehmann on the run.
International challengers
Paul Georgentum (FRA) comes into the race as the only other WTCS medallist; he made the podium in Hamburg back in 2021 which means Lehmann is also the most recent Series medallist among the men in Tiszaujvaros. Georgenthum will be joined by Nathan Grayel (FRA), who won a maiden World Cup medal last autumn, and both will seek to uphold a recent French tradition of success in Tiszaujvaros. In the past two editions, a French man has made the podium (Igor Dupuis last year and Valentin Morlec in 2024) and Georgenthum and Grayel have the all-round skillset to make it three in a row.
Elsewhere on the start list, Denis Kolobrodov (RUS) has had a promising season so far in the WTCS and currently holds a spot in the overall top-10. In addition, Tayler Reid (NZL) is experienced enough to make any breakaway that could define the race like last year, while Luke Schofield (AUS) and Panagiotis Bitados (GRE) are major talents that could be on the cusp of a World Cup breakthrough. All considered, however, if anyone dethrones Lehmann it will be one of the greatest triathlon shocks of 2026.