Elche Arenales Triathlon Suspended

The organization has sent a statement explaining that the 2017 edition will not be held due to the withdrawal of the institutions' support

They have also confirmed that they will celebrate another triathlon near Elche on the same date

Communique of the organization:

We have to communicate, then, the sad news that the Triathlon of Elche Arenales 113 disappears, and will not see the light of its thirteenth edition as planned.

The current sports councilor of the Hon. City Council of Elche, Mr. Manuel Jesús Ruiz Pareja, of the Party of Elche, in its November 4 brief, which was officially notified to us by 24 messaging in November and by certified mail the 30 of the same month, through its Director Deportivo, has decided not to authorize the celebration of the test for the following reasons (we quote textually and enclose written):

"- That the characteristics of said event do not conform to the current sports policy of the Department of Sports, as this event does not have the main purpose of promoting the sport of Elche.

- That the costs of this event are unaffordable for the City Council, in relation to what it contributes to the city. "

The 7 of December the organization presented an extensive list of allegations to the aforementioned letter, in which, in its point SIXTH we say

"That the notification of dismissal notified cannot be understood as an administrative act and, if understood as such, is null and void as it violates and violates the established legal and regulatory procedure, creating defenselessness for the appearing party and clearly detrimental to the public interests of the municipality of Elche in accordance with the sports, tourism, social, educational and even economic benefits that this event has been materializing and strengthening throughout its 12 editions already held."

In a last attempt by the Triathlon Federation of the Valencian Community to redirect the situation, the president of the same, D. Valeriano Moreno, and the Secretary Manager, Mr. Arturo Navarro, met last December 13 with the Mayor of the city, Mr. Carlos González Serna, of the PSOE, and with the aforementioned councilor. In the same, the mayor endorsed this political decision, leaving the matter settled and stating that they had no intention of responding to the allegations presented by the organization in the interim in response to his letter of non-authorization.

The outrage committed is so great, so obvious the short-sightedness and the lack of political vision, that such communiqué moves from the current political leaders of Elche, that we will not delve further into it, there are too many words and we are sure that all of you You are going to draw your own conclusions quickly.

The road that has taken us here has been long and tortuous but we never imagined that the personal stubbornness, the inquina to us, and the little technical and political level demonstrated in the management of this matter, had as outcome the suspension that now we communicate

We deeply regret the damage that this political decision is going to cause to the city of Elche in general and to Arenales de Sol in particular, to its neighbors who love this first level sporting event that has been our Triathlon of Elche Arenales 113, to its businessmen, merchants and hoteliers, who will lose all the benefits derived from it, with an economic impact close to 400.000 € in the latest edition of 2016.

We sincerely thank all those who have supported us throughout these years, volunteers, collaborating companies and sponsors, triathlon clubs, ilicitanos or not, hoteliers, neighbors of Elche and Arenales, associations, occupational centers of the IVAS, institutes and schools, universities, civil protection, local police, civil guard, staff of the Department of Sports of Elche, staff of the different conselleries and deputies, officers and staff of the FTC and the FETRI, we will never be able to express how important you have been so we could have gotten here. And of course, to you, triathletes, who are the ones who have given us life, thank you, thank you, thank you.

After the last meeting we had with the councilor of Elche the November 2, and in view of his attitude and pretensions, we began to work on a new project in anticipation of the tragedy being consummated, something that, we must recognize, makes a month it seemed totally unlikely. "How Arenales is going to load!" We said to ourselves.

Naive

Naive, yes, but confident in higher political instances that put some sanity and recondujesen the situation. Bad hopes as we have already told. And doubt, like death, nested in our hearts, and the survival instinct was set in motion.

We tighten the pace, we use it thoroughly and thanks to the support of our usual collaborators as well as the Valencian and Spanish Federation and a municipality that we are not yet going to disclose, after the final suspension, we inform you that the next 22 and 23 in April 2017, on the same date and a few kilometers from Elche, we will organize an event of the same characteristics as Arenales 113, maintaining the same autonomic and national category if it is the case, with many new features, in which we will put all the soul and all our technical, professional and emotional capacity so that, crying together the loss, we have the best possible triathlons.

We appeal to your understanding and we ask for a vote of confidence and a few days of margin to let you know all the details of the new project, which will be released soon. Do not ever doubt that, as it can not be otherwise, all those who decide to cancel their registration will also receive our thanks for having trusted us by registering in what was to be the XIII Triathlon of Elche Arenales 113 and the full refund of any payment they made.

Thank you very much for everything one more time and we trust you to continue here in a few days.

Long live the triathlon, 2017 is going to be a great year, the year of Miguel Hernández, the town's poet.

Ximo Rubert, Race Director

José Ramón Vives, President of the A300w ELCHE TCP