Eneko Plains fourth in the IRONMAN South Africa

This Sunday has been a classic IRONMAN distance where the Spanish usually debut in long distance: the IRONMAN South Africa. This time we had 5 representatives Eneko Llanos* , Gustavo Rodríguez, Gurutze Frades,   Eneko Elosegui y Víctor Arroyo . The test awarded 2 Slots in each category for the Kona World Championship.

As for the PROS of the test, last year's winners were on the starting line Kyle Buckingham and Lucy Charles plus  Ben Hoffman,  Josh Amberger, Bart Aernouts *, David McNamee * y   Tim Don among others in the male category and Angela Naeth ,Anja Ippach in females.

* Classifieds for IMKona 2019

The test began at 6:30 Spanish time, with the 1,6 km of swimming (it was cut due to bad weather) where the first to get out of the water was Josh Amberger followed 32 seconds by Tim Don and 41 seconds by a group of 10 units very stretched where Eneko Llanos started in tenth place 56 seconds behind the head of the race. Gustavo Rodríguez started the 20th at 3:30. We regret to say that in this segment two triathletes have died this morning

In the first kilometers of the cycling sector a triathlete was formed at the head of 9 in just 17 seconds, passing through the 30 km with Maurice Clavel at the head, the rest of the triathletes were Ben Hoffman, Josh Amberger, Nils Frommhold, Tim Don, Kyle Bckingham, Guilio Molinari and Eneko Llanos.

The group, although it was more or less together, was stretching and, after half the route (90km), Ben Hoffman could be seen as the leader along with Josh Amberger, 20 seconds away from the group led by Frommhold where Eneko Llanos was ninth.

In the last part of the cycling segment, Ben Hoffman left alone arriving at the T2 with 1: 30 of advantage over Amberger's group, Frommhold, Bckingham and Bckingham. Eneko Llanos arrived at the T2 with 3: 43 of disadvantage in sixth position. Gustavo Rodríguez was 10º and Víctor Arroyo 20º.

In the 42-kilometer marathon, the American was strong, holding up the rhythm of the group that tried to hunt him down, where they cut him a few seconds before finally starting at kilometer 15, he increased his advantage again by going through the half marathon with a 2:03 advantage over Nils Frommhold and 3:32 on Andreas Dreitz who reached the third position. At that point Eneko was seventh, placing less than 4 minutes from the podium positions.

On the way through the 30 kilometer, Ben Hoffman had an advantage of 3: 35 on Frommhold and marched with strong pace to get the victory in the test with a time of 7: 34: 20 followed by Nils Frommhold (7:40:13) and Michael Weiss (7:42:36). After an excellent foot race where time was cutting back, Eneko Llanos (7:45:00) came in fourth position.

Female test (in progress)

In the women's event in the water there were no surprises and Lucy Charles started in first position with 8 seconds of advantage over Lauren Brandon. Anna Ippacht was third but already 4:19 behind the race leaders. Gurutze Frades was eighth at 7:30.

In the cycling sector, the duo of Charles and Brandon remained in the lead, although Lppacht was gradually closing the gap behind him, passing through the 50 km control point at 2:49. Guru still had options and was seventh at 10 minutes ahead of the race. In the passage through km 90, the difference was lowered to 2 minutes and the trio was increasingly distancing itself from the chasing group of 3 units to 13 minutes with Anna Watkinson, Mareen Hufe and Guru who passed in sixth position but with the same time .

From this point Lppacht with a great rhythm on the bicycle was increasing its advantage to arrive with 3: 15 of advantage over Brandon and Charles to the T2. Gurutze got off his fifth bicycle.

In the race on foot, the British Lucy Charles had no rival, and with an exemplary marathon was climbing positions to reach the leadership in the 10 kilometer of the sector and from there go solo for the victory.

Finally Lucy Charles He took the victory with a time of 08:35:32, revalidating the title won last year.

Gurutze Frades She was very solid throughout the race, climbing positions to reach fourth place in the first meters of the marathon, moving forward to the third classified Lauren Brandon, where she was gradually reducing her time to reach her on the 23 kilometer of the race and go back to secure the second place and get the pass for the World Championship in Kona.

Finally Gurutze Frades, has finished the test in second position and with a marathon in 2: 52: 40 to reach goal in 08: 40: 48 which means that he has achieved the classification for Kona which will be his fourth participation (2016,2017 and 2018). The third classified was Annath Watkinson (08: 43: 19)

It has also been his best position in this test since he had been fifth in 2017 and sixth in 2018.