The 18-year-old Álvaro Bernal, a second-year high school student at IES César Manrique, once again emerged this Friday as the great figure of the IES Yaiza Triathlon, winning the absolute individual category for the third consecutive year with a time of 48:08 minutes. A thousand students from different educational centers in Lanzarote enjoyed the biggest young sports festival on the island, surrounded by teachers, family members, companions, volunteers and entities participating in the organization: IES Yaiza, Yaiza City Council and Lanzarote Cabildo.
Bernal was accompanied on the podium by Saúl Hernández, from IES Teguise, who completed the demanding swimming, cycling and running circuit in 52:05 minutes, and by Tobías Haneler, from IES Yaiza, who crossed the finish line with a record of 52:39 minutes. The triathletes highlighted the effort made, especially in the cycling section, due to the wind and the conditions of the terrain, but they overcame the adversities and looked fresh in the arrival area.
Among the women, Clara Victoria Bouchet, from IES Costa Teguise (1:20:00 hours), stood out as the first classified in the individual category, followed by Andrea Morales, from IES Teguise, and Lucía Rodríguez, from IES Yaiza.
By teams, in the women's category, the athletes from IES Yaiza were the winners, with the team formed by Inés Santamaría, Mónica Barge, Celina Pohl and Kim Leitz, with a time of 1:04:46 hours. In second place, the team from IES Tinajo arrived, formed by Ariadna Curbelo, Bárbara Reyes, Anya Setayri and Daniela Domínguez, while in the men's category the winning team was IES César Manrique, formed by Néstor Álvarez, José Tejera, Juan Pablo Betancort and Abián García.
The awards and distinctions were presented in the courtyard of IES Yaiza, including the affectionate Tortuga Award, which recognizes the effort of the last classified to complete the race, which went to Marta Almeda, a 2nd year ESO student at IES Yaiza.
The event was attended by educational and political representatives, including the mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, the island director of Education, Mario Pérez, the sports councilor of Yaiza, Daniel Medina, the education councilor, Manuela Rodríguez, and the sports councilor of the Cabildo, Patricia Pérez, as well as directors of the various collaborating companies, and a special guest, the Olympic athlete from Lanzarote, José Carlos Hernández.
Happy and intense day
The IES Yaiza Triathlon reaches its twenty-second edition, standing out more and more in the sports calendar of Lanzarote, being one of the most important extracurricular activities that take place in the Canary Islands, whose main support is the work side by side of students and teachers of the organizing center.
It was 8:30 a.m. on a freezing morning when the facilities of IES Yaiza began to offer a multicolored spectacle with the arrival of the excited participants to the center. Once received and after the pertinent procedures, the brave triathletes moved to the steep beach of Puerto Calero, where they would have to face the more than 600 meters of swimming in the open and cold sea.
On the starting line, the faces reflected the tense wait for the starting gun that started the race in the middle of an expectant silence. Little by little, the pebbles of the beach gave way to the yellow and orange of the swimmers' caps, which, wrapped in a white blanket of foam, thrilled those present.
At 10:10 a.m., the organization gave the start to the triathletes who competed individually and the athletes from the women's teams. Five minutes later, when they were entering the second buoy of the course, the male and mixed team participants were launched. Finally, and to preserve their safety, the novices of the First Cycle of ESO of the host Institute were released.
The tremendous effort caused some fainting on the arrival ramp of the port. The first to leave the water was Alejandro Candela, from IES Teguise, eight minutes after the start. A few seconds later, Álvaro Bernal, from IES César Manrique, came out, who would later be the winner of the absolute individual category.
In the women's category, the first to reach the shore, as in the previous edition, was Sara González Cabrera from IES Costa Teguise, with a time of nine minutes, followed by Ana Gómez from IES Playa Honda. With hardly any breath, they appeared in the bicycle parking lot, located in the Hesperia hotel, and from there they headed to the Institute along a rather stony circuit, with some small slopes and loose sand, which forced almost all cyclists to do their best until reaching the center's soccer field, where the boxes were.
Many triathletes gained positions, while others lost all possibility of being among the first places and struggled to reach the soccer field of IES Yaiza. Álvaro Bernal was the first to pass the passage controls of the bike race in the men's individual category. The head of the women's competition was led by the triathlete Clara Victoria Bouchet, who was finally the winner.
As was already expected, the triathletes who arrived in the first places in the bicycle race became, in most cases, in the honor roll with some exceptions, since the foot race caused some fainting in the suffered ramps that the competitors had to face in the direction of the outskirts of the Institute, although the terrain was already quite softened inside the center.
