Club La Santa organised the Canary Islands’ first virtual race in record time, with over 250 athletes participating
Sport has had to reinvent itself in these unprecedented times, but this need not entail any drop in either quality or participation. Club La Santa has taken up this challenge and organised the Canary Islands’ first virtual race in record time, which took place last Sunday with over 250 athletes participating.
The activity attracted the attention of local and national participants, but also piqued the curiosity of many international athletes. In the end, the challenge included runners from 18 countries and three continents.
Club La Santa is the organiser of world-famous events such as Ironman, Volcano Triathlon, Ironman 70.3 and the International Running Challenge. The response shown by its followers to this pioneering virtual experience was fantastic, with athletes from Spain, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Australia and the United States competing in the 10 and 5 km races, with 30 percent of the proceeds going to UNICEF.
The concept of the event, supported by Turismo Lanzarote and European Sports Destination, was simple. The registered athletes had to run the established distance and publish their run on their participant’s profile, with a screenshot from the device they train with showing the time, distance and date.
The winner of the 10 km men’s race was the Italian ‘sports YouTuber’ Peter Lanziner, with a time of 31’22”, while the winner of the women’s race was the Danish professional triathlete and ambassador of Club La Santa, Maja Stage Nielsen, with a time of 40’03”. In the 5 km event, the Danish professional athlete Kasper Lauman Hartlev, of the HMRC Hildrum Fysioterapi club, won the men’s race with a time of 15’16”, while the fastest woman was the young German Hella Haak, with a time of 19’54”.
In the kids’ categories, the 3 km prize went to the Italian Luca Degasperi, of the Doloteam club, with a time of 10’57”. There was no girl’s race due to the absence of female runners. In the 5 km race the winners were Dani Guerra Gutierrez from Lanzarote, member of the Bayliss Multisport team, and the British athlete Isabel Moore, of the Saint Edmund Pacers, with times of 16’51” and 20’07” respectively. In the 8 km category the winner was the Danish athlete Frederik Lykke Mathiesen, with a time of 31’36”. Again, there was no girl’s race due to the absence of female runners.
