The 2024 Xiwuqi King and Queen of the Grasslands competition was probably the most exciting ever with two champions who took the crown only in the last race of the weekend on Sunday! Saikhanbileg Enkhbaatar and Chen Yixuan are the new KOG champions, pushing Zheng Chanlei and Lu Fangfang, the two ranking leaders, down the first runner-up position in Cyclo Xiwuqi.
For the first time in its history, the KOG competition was no longer based on timed results, but on points attributed according to one’s race results throughout the weekend, which started on Friday already with the sprint duathlon. Each race was categorised as well, with e.g. the marathon run offering more points than the half marathon and 11k run, and the long distance cycling races logically offering more than the shorter varieties. This innovation proved to be successful and gave more participants chances to run or cycle themselves into the spotlights. In fact, the men’s ranking lead changed after every single event! Only Lu Fangfang in the women’s managed to secure two lead jerseys this weekend – and yet the last and most important one on day 3 eluded her. Arguably tired from Saturday’s efforts, in which she won the female marathon and pushed hard in the afternoon to keep the lead jersey in the 58km long Speedy Xiwuqi bike race, Lu Fangfang had her worst point score when it mattered, only 43 points for 13th place in the 123km long Cyclo Xiwuqi. Less consistent than Chen Yixuan, who won the duathlon on Friday, was 3rd in the marathon, followed Lu Fangfang closely to limit the damage in Speedy Xiwuqi, but then found the extra gear to place 4th in Cyclo Xiwuqi way ahead of Lu Fangfang and ended up with a total points score 251 KOG points, ten more than the woman from Ningxia, and eleven more than Austria’s very consistent Joelly Ines. The top 3 within 11 points!
The men’s KOG was even tighter, eventually, with the Top 3 ending the competition within a mere 6 points of each other! Zheng Chanlei from Shenyang went into Sunday’s Cyclo Xiwuqi as leader, but Wang Lidong – on his MTB riding the Genghis Khan MTB Classic of 79km – was going to be a serious threat. If the former KOG champion from Heilongjiang managed to finish inside the top 5 of the MTB race, he was always going to win the overall KOG competition again. But… Wang Lidong finished 7th. And so, it all came down to what position Zheng Chanlei would finish, AND to whether Mongolia’s Saikhanbileg Enkhbaatar would win Cyclo Xiwuqi or not. Because indeed, the 16-year-old Mongolian had put himself into KOG contention, albeit modestly with 6th place in the duathlon and just a mere finishing spot in the 11k fun run (2 points only). But then he won Speedy Xiwuqi on Saturday afternoon, and points calculations told us that if he managed to win Cyclo Xiwuqi as well, he would surpass Wang Lidong 212 to 206 points. Only a victory would be enough for Enkhbaatar, and that is exactly what he did. The young rider from Ulanbaatar won, and Zheng Chanlei – a better runner than cyclist – could only manage 14th place. He ends with the same points total than Wang Lidong, but has the advantage due to his better marathon result (3rd vs 4th).
