Photos: Sergio Betancort
Adilson Fortes Spencer Varela, representative of the Republic of Cape Verde, and Aroa Merino from Lanzarote were proclaimed this Sunday as winners of the 'Lanzarote Wine Run 2017', which ran through the spectacular landscape of La Geria framed in the 'IX Lanzarote Wine Run & Traditional Cuisine Festival', an enogastronomic and sporting event organized under the 'Saborea Lanzarote' label by the Cabildo de Lanzarote, the Yaiza City Council, the Regulatory Council of the Designation of Origin 'Vinos de Lanzarote' and Club La Santa.
As is the norm in this peculiar 'Wine Race', the absolute winners received as a prize the equivalent of their body weight -64 and 41 kilos, respectively- in liters of exquisite Designation of Origin Lanzarote wines. Spencer Varela took a time of 1 hour, 25 minutes and 6 seconds to cover the 23.4 kilometers of the long race, a distance that Aroa Merino completed in 1 hour, 30 minutes and 20 seconds, which meant her seventh title in this event and also earned her third place in the absolute general classification.
Matías Ojeda –4 minutes and 12 seconds behind the champion– and Jacob Ferrer -6:34 behind- completed the men's podium of the long race; while Carmen Delia Luz Morales –18:25 behind the winner– and the Dutch Tessa Kortekaas –22:43 behind– did the same in the women's category. The short 12-kilometer race was won in the men's category by Kueny Pires de Miranda, also from Cape Verde (39:25), followed by his compatriot Jadirson Dias Ribeiro (41:23) and Héctor Betancor (42:45). In women's, Lilly Mcnabb (51:12) won, followed by Ruth Hutton (54:10) and Ali Hardie (55:33).
'Save La Geria'
Adding also the walking modality, the ninth edition of the Lanzarote Wine Run finally had 2,061 participants from 32 countries, of which 1,054 were women and 1,007 men. All have contributed to one of the main purposes pursued by this event, which is to allocate funds, through a part of the money raised by the registrations of all the 'winerunners', to the 'Save La Geria' project, which aims to recover farms in this wine-growing landscape unique in the world for its singular beauty.
In addition, many of them also contributed to the 'Solidarity Shoes' project by donating their sports shoes to the Cabildo's 'Lanzarote Recicla' program, which in turn will be responsible for distributing them among the children and young people of Equatorial Guinea. On the other hand, a trip for two people to attend the Rioja Alavesa Wine Run to be held on October 29 was also raffled among the participants.
The awards ceremony held in Uga, where the 'Traditional Cuisine Festival' -the exquisite enogastronomic part of the 'IX Lanzarote Wine Run & Traditional Cuisine Festival'- has been taking place since yesterday, Saturday, was attended by the president of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Pedro San Ginés; the Councilor for Economic Promotion of the first Island Corporation, Antonio Morales; and the mayoress of Yaiza, Gladys Acuña, among other public representatives.
Also noteworthy was the presence of the Minister of Sports of Cape Verde, Fernando Elisio Freire, a country with which the Lanzarote Cabildo maintains a close advisory relationship in its intention to be part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, and which was so successfully represented in the 'Wine Race' by its three participants. Also present were the president of the Regulatory Council of the Designation of Origin 'Vinos de Lanzarote', Rafael Morales, and the representative of Club La Santa, Kenneth Gasque.
Another of the peculiarities of this edition of the 'Wine Run' was the elimination of plastic containers at the refreshment points, so a bottle for water was given to the runners and a polycarbonate glass to the walkers where they could serve the Lanzarote wines that they could taste during the tour, which once again featured the camel 'Careto' with which the Yaiza City Council symbolizes the gratitude for the work done by this animal together with the hand of man, a combination that has contributed to shaping the spectacular landscape of La Geria.
Also noteworthy was the participation in the 'Wine Race' of José Carlos Hernández from Lanzarote, an Olympic marathon runner in the London 2012 Games and winner of the event on four occasions, and Lionel Morales, a finalist in the triathlon modality of the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Paralympic Games.
