Raul Santiago, 15 years old, and Verónica Navarro, 14 years old, were the great winners of the twentieth edition of the El Río Swimming Crossing. The race held this Saturday was attended by 598 swimmers, who crossed the 2,600 meters that separate Lanzarote from the island of La Graciosa and challenged the strong current that is usually common in this area. The youngest swimmers were the dominators of the race, with Raúl Santiago and Verónica Sánchez from Gran Canaria winning at the finish line.
From early in the morning there was a great festive atmosphere on the island of La Graciosa. The hundreds of participants were gradually arriving to the eighth island, all of them accompanied by family and friends. In the preliminaries of the race, the organization presented a series of awards to the companies that collaborated in the development of the El Río Crossing. In addition, Antonia Inés Mitchell, the oldest swimmer at 82 years of age, and Antonio Machado, the only swimmer who has participated in all twenty editions of the crossing, received an award from the Island Sports Service of the Cabildo of Lanzarote.
The parade of nations and autonomous communities was in charge of kicking off the El Río Swimming Crossing. The children, dressed in the typical costume of La Graciosa, carried the flags of each of the countries and autonomous communities represented in this twentieth edition. Next, Aroa Merino was in charge of leading the massive warm-up of the swimmers on the esplanade of the La Graciosa pier.
The almost 600 swimmers were transferred to the beach below El Risco, the place from where this prestigious race starts. The anecdote was not lacking at the time of departure, and that is that for the first time in history the departure was void, having to be repeated. The second time was the charm and the intrepid swimmers faced the 2,600 meters that separate Lanzarote from the island of La Graciosa. The current was not as violent as in the previous edition and allowed the first classified to spend just over thirty minutes to reach Caleta de Sebo.
In the men's category, the fastest was Raúl Santiago from Gran Canaria, a member of the Las Palmas Swimming Club, who took a time of 33 minutes and 10 seconds. It was the first time that this young 15-year-old swimmer participated in the El Río Swimming Crossing and he could not have made a better debut. Florencio Betancor (34:50) and David Romera (36:45) completed the first three positions in the men's category.
Among the women, the winner was Verónica Navarro, also a member of the Las Palmas Swimming Club, who crossed the finish line with a time of 36 minutes and 59 seconds. At 14 years of age, she was participating for the first time in the El Río Swimming Crossing, which was not an impediment to winning. María Isabel Valido (42:04) and Victoria Chantada from Lanzarote (43:00) occupied the second and third place in the women's category.
The finish line of the El Río Swimming Crossing was a constant trickle of swimmers who managed to complete the challenge of swimming from Lanzarote to the island of La Graciosa. Many repeated from previous editions and set themselves the challenge of improving their personal bests, and others who faced their first crossing of these characteristics. A paella for all the participants and the awards ceremony, put the finishing touch to the twentieth edition of the El Río Swimming Crossing.
