San ValenTRI: love in the Spanish triathlon

Today Valentine's Day we want to make a small tribute to several of the Spanish triathlon couples. They not only share their sentimental and family life, but also are companions in training and often travel together to many competitions.

 

 

Javier Gómez Noya (10 times champion) of the world is a couple of the New Zealand international elite triathlete Anne Jenkins. Noya will fight this year for the only major title he lacks in his record in drafting events ... the Olympics. On the other hand Anne given the level of the selection of her country has complicated being in Rio, but we wish her the best for this year.

Mario Mola y Carolina Routier, one of the best known pairs of Spanish triathlon. They share everything together, same coach, same training group, they compete almost in the same competitions, they graduated from the same day at the university.

Mario is the current runner-up in the world of triathlon and a serious Spanish trick to medal in the Olympic Games. For his part, Carolina won last year the best result of a Spanish in the WTS, being 4ª in Edmonton. He is currently fighting for the Olympic Games, the classification is very on track and he needs to finish in the first tests of the year.

 

Vicente Hernández y Tamara Gómez, they also share a coach (Carlos Prieto) and a training group. Vicente was 4º last year in the WTS of Gold Coast and an untimely injury deprived him of fighting for the top10 of the last world.

This year he struggles to continue growing in the WTS and for the Olympics where he o Fernando Alarza the men's team is destined for the 3rd Olympic place. For her part, Tamara is the current champion of the Mooloolaba World Cup, she is close to getting the 3rd place for Spain for Rio, we are convinced that the girls will achieve it. Almost similar to Vicente's, because in case of getting the 3 places ... in Spain there are 4 girls opting for them.

Later we found 5 pairs where several of the triathletes compete in national ELITE categories, some of them also shining internationally. In Catalonia we have Albert Parreño one of the main triathletes of his autonomous community and Anna Flaquer, 3ª in the CTO of Spain of DO in 2015.

In Andalucia Ana Ruz is a double champion of Spain of caudriathlon and Damian Vindel bronze medal in 2015. In the Valencian community Emilio Aguayo was 3º last year at the European Cup in Madrid, winner at Fuente Álamo and the Spanish MD champion and his partner Míriam Roselló also competes in Elite Spain championships, although of her, we want to emphasize that she is possibly the most beloved triathlete of the entire CV for her work with the "paratrikids" on the CD Moncada - Avant and previous years with the "Avant - El Cantero de Le Tour ".

In the Canary Islands we find Ricardo Hernández y Melina Alonso. Ricardo last year was several times top10 in Continental Cups highlighting the 2ª plaza in Osaka. Melina achieved two podiums in 2014 in the Cups of Valparaíso and Mendoza, in addition to winning the bronze medal in duathlon junior and sub23 worlds in 2011 and 2012. And to finish with the Olympic distance, in Galicia we find the couple of Camila Alonso and the Venezuelan Luismi Velasquez. Camila, the current runner-up of Spain Sprint and champion sub23 and of Luismo, we highlighted her 5ª place last year in the continental cup of Osaka.

We continue now with the couples of Medium and Long distance. First we will mention Eneko Llanos y Ruth Brito. Eneko takes more than 20 years competing at the highest level, first in short distance, where he was Olympic in Sydney'00 and Athens'04 and European champion in 2004. 2º in the IM Hawaii in 2097 and 10 times in a row qualified for Kona. This year 2016 will surely see you on the Island for 11 once. On the other hand Rut is the current bronze in the Cto. of Spain of LD and 3ª in Vitoria ... in 2016 we are convinced that he will return to Vitoria to improve that 3ª square.

 

Following with the Basque Country we highlight Guru Frades y Roberto Corujo. (Roberto is also the coach of Guru). Gurutze is a four-time champion in Spain from LD, winner of IM Vichy'15, 2ª in IM Malaysia'15 ... and with a foot and a half in Kona'16. We are convinced that after the 70.3 of Mallorca and the IM of Brazil will have its classification completed. For his part Roberto Corujo was 4º in Vitoria'14 and that same year he was 16º in the LD World Championship. In Malaysia, a bike crash deprived him of getting the slot for Kona ... we hope he gets it this year. (We assume it will be in Brazil).

 

We move north with another couple Fernando García Aja e Inma Pereiro Fernando was the first Spanish world champion in Kona, in 2010 in 45-49. Inma Pereiro has 16 national titles of different modalities and a top10 in Roth. We continue to the north, now a little further west in Galicia, live Aida Valiño y Gustavo Rodríguez, one of the best known pairs of the national triathlon, it is very common to see them always compete together in the same triathlons. Aída is the current winner of Elche and the Spanish champion of MD in 2014. On the other hand Gustavo obtained last year the Txapela tripe (Pamplona, ​​Bilbao and Zarautz) besides being 2º in the Cto. of LD Spain ... and other great results, is one of the medium and long distance triathletes that competes the most. We continue with Iván Cáceres y Lucia Pérez. Iván has been finisher in Kona and Lucia 6ª in the national of MD of 2015.

Both will compete this year at IM Texas where they will fight for Kona ... we hope they will achieve it just like they did last year. Mabel Gallardo y Pedro María Campoy, from Murcia both that last year became the first Spanish couple finisher in Kona. In Andalusia we find another couple who are fighting for they are in Kona, Patricia Bueno e Iván Tejero. Patricia already got her slot in IM Vichy and Ivan will fight in South Africa's IM to accompany Patricia in Kona.

Another couple who share trips and competitions are Marina Leboso y Jordi González. Marina was finisher in Kona last year, and at the 70.3 in Miami she managed to slot for the 70.3 World Championship. In that same test Jordi was very close to achieving it ... but we are sure he will get it in March at the 70.3 in Buenos Aires.

 

Another couple of the triathlon are Victor del Corral y Azucena Lara, where this year Victor, already recovered from his injury that did not allow him to participate in Kona last year, will seek his qualification for the World Championship

And we closed our special San ValenTRI with Sara Loehr y Rodrigo Torres. Sara is the current champion of Spain of MD and winner of the Half Challenge Paguera, Rodrigo besides being the trainer of Sara was 5º in the Cto. of Spain of DO in 2014.