Last Saturday the event took place with 570 participants, with Sara Pérez and Gregory Barnaby taking the victory.
Last weekend Lanzarote hosted the Club La Santa Volcano Triathlon, a competition that was born in 1984, becoming the first Olympic distance triathlon event to be held in Spain.
The Volcano Triathlon is an event in which professional triathletes who have spent the winter training in Lanzarote mix with amateurs who are looking for their first experience in the sport in this long-lived triathlon race. The event also has a space dedicated to young athletes with the celebration of the Volcano Kids one day before the competition for adults.
In its 38th edition, the race saw the participation of 570 triathletes of 30 nationalities, a great success for an event that had held its last edition at the end of last year due to the pandemic.
The competition started at 10:00 on Saturday in the Club La Santa’ saltwater lagoon. In this first leg, Italians Miguel Espuna and Gregory Barnaby came out of the water in first and second position. Spain’s Sara Pérez and Great Britain’s Kate Curran did the same in the women’s category.
After the swim the triathletes faced the bike segment that took them to the emblematic village of Famara, where they were cheered on by the surf lovers who were getting ready to go out into the water.
On a two-lap circuit Gregory Barnaby took the lead and held on with Kristoffer Visti Graae and Per van Vlerken chasing him down. Barnaby finished as the leader in this segment with Visti Graae 34 seconds behind.
For her part, in the women’s category, Sara Pérez remained at the head of the race, leading the category at a very high pace and finishing very strongly in the stage.
It was time for the run and the big differences between the triathletes who were looking for the victory and those whose only objective was to cross the finish line were already noticeable.
The route of the last segment of the race took the riders from Club La Santa to the village of La Santa, along an avenue where they had the opportunity to see one of the best surfable waves in Europe, the El Quemao wave. Over these 10 km Gregory Barnaby refused to let the leader’s position slip away, and he was followed by the Belgian Dieter Comhair and the German Per van Vlerken. On the women’s side, Sara Pérez was proclaimed the winner, closely followed by the Italians Giorgia Priarone and Marta Bernardi.
The event was held under strict preventive health measures as set out in a protocol approved by the organisers and the competent authorities. The island maintains its usual reputation as a safe destination and venue for varied sporting events and competitions.
The success of the Club La Santa Volcano Triathlon lies in the feeling of pride that it awakens in each triathlete to be competing in an event which has enjoyed the participation of great figures of the sport over its nearly 40 years of history.
Club La Santa isn’t taking a rest yet and is already busy preparing its entire team for the IRONMAN 70.3 Lanzarote to be held on March 19th in Playa Blanca.
