Gurutze Frades and Saleta Castro in the "Hell" of IRONMAN Malaysia

Maximum temperatures are expected that can reach 35º and a relative humidity of 85%

 

This Saturday at the 7: 10 in the morning local time, the 0: 10 in Spain, starts a new edition of the IRONMAN Malasya, one of the toughest in the franchise for its strong heat and high humidity. During the day of the race maximums are expected that can reach 35º and a relative humidity of 85%

In the list of exit there will be two Spanish PROs, Saleta Castro y Gurutze Frades. This 2015 is being the year of the "takeoff" of the Spanish triathletes within the tests of franchise IM and IM 70.3 with several of them competing in PRO. The case of this double national PRO participation in Malaysia may be the first time (or one of the few times that has happened) that there are two Spaniards competing in PRO in an Ironman outside of Europe.

 

Saleta Castro

 

The main objective of both is to try to do the best possible and get KPR points. In the case of Guru a top 5 would put you with one foot in Kona'16 and in the case of Saleta add more points to those achieved in the 70.3 LZ and start to dream about Hawaii. We know that it is very difficult, and for girls even more they only have 35 seats, but we know that our PROs are fighters and they will keep trying.

 

Gurutze Frades

The race is held on the island of Langkavi, with a swim of 2 turns to a circuit of 1,9km in a waters of the Andaman Sea, then 180km practically flat where the triathletes will tour the island on a circuit to 2 laps. Finally the 42,2 km will be a real hell, two laps of 21km with much of the route around the airport where surely there will be no public so the race will still be harder.

At the beginning of the week we spoke with Gurutze who told us how the race is presented:

"Little by little, the island dresses in Ironman. This circuit has been marked for days and the T1 and T2 have been mounted for days (They are separated a few kilometers from each other).

So far we have been Rober (Guru coach who will also play the IM, the one in GGEE) and me and we have just crossed paths with two other triathletes. Now there is someone else and I imagine that tomorrow or the rest will arrive. It is a curious island and different from what I had seen so far. It is a jungle where in some areas there are monkeys on the shoulders. The weather is the great battle. It makes an average temperature of 30-35ºC with a very high humidity. Storms fall daily until several times, of flooding everything in a moment.

The swimming circuit is in a very quiet bay with very hot water. The bike is very heterogeneous in profile and asphalt. The race on foot could be quick, but the conditions in which we are going to fester will make it very hard. The list of registered is very broad, 28 women. The level will be high. Right now I feel good and the goal is to get the maximum number of points. It will be a tough race where extreme conditions will have to be taken care of. My conditioning to the island has been good. It has been very hard to do the training here but it has been a good option. "

 

Gurutze Frades

 

We can see the hardness of IRONMAN Malaysia in the women's start list, where besides Saleta, there will be three other triathletes who were top10 in the IM of Lanzarote, another of the toughest iromans in the world. They are the German Diana Riesler, winner in Lanzarote this 2015 and winner last year in Malaysia being 5ª of the absolute general. Will also be Carolina Livesey 3ª in Lanzarote, and Kate Bevilaqua 9ª in "La Isla" ... besides Saleta that was 7ª this year in Lanzarote. On the other hand highlight the incombustible Natascha Badmand hexacampbell in Kona, and also among the favorites we must quote Guru Frades who will surely be waging war with the best.

As far as men's competition is concerned, the top favorites are French Romain Guillaume and the Swedish Frederik Cronebotg, 2º last year in Malaysia. Finally, also highlight the Australian Paul Ambrose and the New Zealander Guy Crawford.

Finally, it should also be noted that in addition to Saleta and Guru there will be Spanish 5 competing in age groups, Roberto Carujo (Guru's coach, which we already mentioned above) and Joreni Perello in 30-34M, Joan Pedret y Joaquin Valverde in 35-39M and Luciana Bermudez in 35-39F.

There are no previous results.

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