World champion Jonas Van de Steene left Playa Blanca this Thursday for France to compete in the Paris Paralympic Games in the Paracycling Handbike H4 category in two modalities: 28.6-kilometer time trial and 74.5-kilometer road race.
The athlete will represent his country, Belgium, although the tourist town of Playa Blanca in Lanzarote also feels represented by having one of its sports neighbors competing at the highest level.
The Yaiza City Council, chaired by Óscar Noda, wishes Van de Steene the best of success, “whom we consider an ambassador for sports and the benefits of Playa Blanca as an idyllic place to reside, practice sports, and visit.”
Jonas Van de Steene is ambitious and is not only thinking about the podium, “I want to fight with all my possibilities for gold in both the time trial and the road race.” The municipality of Yaiza will accompany him in spirit on the upcoming 4th (time trial, 2:30 p.m. Canary time) and 5th of September (road race, 3:00 p.m.) when he faces his two great challenges that will be covered on Spanish Television. “All the preparation for Paris I did in Playa Blanca, a paradise to live and train,” notes the athlete.
The Belgian handbiker got to know the south of Lanzarote when he came to compete in the first editions of the Vuelta a Playa Blanca Handbike, which this year, in February, celebrated its fourteenth edition. Since then, he has not stopped valuing what the town that has welcomed him as just another neighbor offers him: “we have accessibility and quality of life, and good weather all year round, which is another factor to take into account because people who are in wheelchairs suffer much less.”
The Councilor for Sports of Yaiza, Ángel Lago, highlights “the sporting value of Jonas and his enormous human quality, a close person who has won the affection of everyone. On the other hand, from the City Council we reaffirm our commitment to give visibility to inclusive sports, and the Handbike Playa Blanca is a unique international event in the Canary Islands that we promote together with the Lanzarote sin Barreras Association and the Asociación para todos Lanza.”
