The very good southern weather accompanied the premiere of the Magma Yaiza - Lanzarote Triathlon this Saturday in Playa Blanca, a tourist town dedicated to the effort of more than a hundred athletes who competed in the Olympic and sprint modalities, where Nico Ward and Sheila Jordán and Andrés Eduardo Díaz and Eleanor Perkins shone, respectively, thus managing to write their names in the nascent history of this event promoted by the Yaiza City Council with the organization of Summit Sports Events and the support of the Lanzarote Council, SPEL Turismo Lanzarote, Art, Culture and Tourism Centers of Lanzarote and Sports Club Puerto Calero.
The athletes took to the water first thing in the morning at Playa Dorada to swim to Marina Rubicón, get on their bikes a few meters away in the transition area on Paseo de la Sal, the shopping area located behind the Barceló hotel, and begin the Playa Blanca - Maciot route, along the road to Femés, Las Breñas, Salinas de Janubio and back to Playa Blanca, to leave the bike and finish with the running segment along the promenade between Paseo de la Sal and the vicinity of Playa Flamingo, fulfilling the distances established according to the modality.
Olympic modality podium
The Spanish triathlete of British origin, Nico Ward, was the most outstanding in the Olympic modality with a total time of 2:06:35h, followed by Víctor Manuel González, 4:19m behind, and Mathias Pedersen, 10:40m behind the winner. "The sea was calm, so the swimming was luxurious, the bike circuit is one of those that are missed and the running is beautiful. It is a promising event and I hope there are many triathlons like this," said Ward, a renowned triathlete for his career in Ironman, who surpassed González, a great swimmer, in the bike segment and confirmed his victory in the running race.
Sheila Jordán, a triathlete from Linares, surpassed Mariela Sebastián by 1:37m and Maike Döhling by 2:20m in the Olympic modality. The winner admitted that she struggled especially with the uphill section on the bike from Playa Blanca to Maciot, "but in the end the reward came with the enjoyment of returning to Playa Blanca and the running race along the promenade next to the sea." The participants in the Olympic modality completed 1,500 meters of swimming, 40 km of cycling and 10 km of running, while the sprint participants swam 750 m, cycled 20 km and ran 5 km.
Highlights in sprint
The best classified in the men's category were Andrés Eduardo Díaz (1:15:17h), Filip Van Craenenbroeck (1:15:42h) and Rasmus Koefer (1:16:38h), while among the women Eleanor Perkins (1:38:54h), Maesa Toledo (1:43:30h) and Elizabet Perdomo (1:46:03h), an athlete from the municipality of Yaiza and a great supporter of sports events inside and outside the Island, stood out.
The Councilor for Sports of Yaiza, Ángel Lago, who presided over the awards ceremony on Paseo de la Sal, summarized the institutional assessment: "the triathlon has been very beautiful and ended without incidents, the athletes themselves say so, who tell us about the route, the atmosphere and the natural beauty of Yaiza. We have all the ingredients to consolidate the Magma".
The City Council presided over by Óscar Noda appreciates the commitment of the municipal staff and that of all the security and emergency bodies, including the Local Police and Civil Protection Yaiza, and the work of the volunteers and entities that collaborated in the triathlon such as the Triyaiza Club.
