After swimming the 14,800 meters that separate the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura in the IX Swimming Crossing "La Bocaina", a total of 72 of the 77 participants reached the finish line this Saturday, October 18. A number of swimmers that has broken this year's record of participation and of swimmers who finish the race.
And although it is a participatory, non-competitive event, the participants strived to take advantage of the good weather to improve times. Thus, the first to reach the finish line at Corralejo Beach was the swimmer from Gran Canaria, Daniel Sánchez Díaz, in a tight and very close finish with Igansi Gironés Pujadas, since after swimming those 15,000 meters for 4 hours and 16 minutes, both swimmers arrived side by side at the finish line, and only Daniel's speed in getting up to run and cross the finish line allowed him to win. A few seconds behind came the third swimmer, Miguel Ángel García Bermejo, and later the rest of the hard-working athletes would arrive, who in most cases arrived exhausted after the great effort.
In the women's category, the first to arrive was the British woman based in Lanzarote, Nadine Gorny, who had a final time of 4 hours 45 minutes. She would be followed by Aránzazu Aranega, with 5 hours 10 minutes, and Beatriz Sampedro with 5 hours 15 minutes.
As in other editions, the swimmers were grouped according to their speed into three groups (they had to do a 3,000 meter test in the pool), which left half an hour apart: at 8:00 am the slow group, at 8:30 am the middle group and at 9:00 am the fast group.
Only five swimmers did not finish the race. One of them because he finally did not start, and four others who were forced by the organization to get on the boats after being left behind and away from their respective groups.
After the race, the organization treated the participants to a meal in Corralejo, and the diplomas, medals and finisher shirts were presented. In addition, sports equipment donated by the sports store "Tribike", a collaborator in the race, was raffled among all the swimmers and volunteers of the canoes and emergency boats.
Also, from the organization, the Club Vulcano wanted to publicly thank all the people, institutions and collaborating companies, with special mention to the volunteers.
