Hispanic Americans in Kona

In the following article we want to acknowledge all the readers who follow the web of www.triatlonnoticias.com from Latin America.

 

 

Latin America is one of the areas in the world where the number of triathletes competing for IM and IM 70.3 tests is growing the most. In addition, the organization of tests in these countries is also increasing considerably, with the consolidation of Mexico, one of the countries with the most IM and IM 70.3 tests, as well as the charismatic IM 70.3 of Pucón in Chile, the one in Panama and the one of Puerto Rico. Finally, we must also mention the arrival of new venues such as the IM 70.3 in Manta in Ecuador in August and in the coming months in Uruguay and Argentina.

In total there will be 72 Latin triathletes in the World IM of Hawaii, almost half (31) correspond to Argentina. The following countries are Mexico and Chile with 8, Puerto Rico with 7, Venezuela and Colombia with 5, Panama and Costa Rica with 3, Uruguay with 2 and Ecuador and Peru with 1.

We have contacted four triathletes who will compete in the Hawaii World Cup, who have told us about the classification, how they prepared the competition, etc. They are Juan Valencia and Ana María Naranjo from Colombia, María Luz Arellano from Ecuador and Agustina Guozden from Argentina.

María Luz Arellano (Ecuador)

María Luz Arellano (Ecuador)

 

María Luz can be considered the "mother" of the IM in Ecuador. Reside in the capital Quito, he has four children and works as director of "Vidactiva" sports magazine, nutrition and health, is also director of Sportime, producer of sporting events, organizer of the Ironman 70.3 Ecuador in Manta.

In 2014 he played the Kona IM although it was not quite right ... and at four weeks he was already competing in Arizona for a new IM where he managed to qualify again for the 2015 World Championship by being 2ª in his GGEE (40-44). His preparation has been in Quito where he lives, a city that is 2800msnm so Maria Luz "enjoys" the benefits of living and training at height.

Agustina Guozden (Argentina)

Agustina Guozden (Argentina)

Agustina is one of the most appreciated triathletes in her country, because of her humble and simple way of being, she has won the hearts of all her countrymen and is very dear there where she will compete. She works as a mechanical engineer and lives in the city of Chacabuco. He debuted in IM at the end of last year in Florida where he got a fantastic 10ª place in the final overall, being the 1ª of all GGEE and 1ª 30-34 in their group which got its slot for Kona.

The Pellegrino brothers are responsible for its preparation. Agus has had to perform most of the specific training with cold since in this area of ​​the Southern Hemisphere, the months of June to August correspond to Winter. To get a better acclimatization to Hawaii has traveled 3 weeks before. Finally we want to emphasize that Agus will compete in Kona with a monkey where the "pink ribbon" of support for breast cancer is stamped, a great gesture that makes this girl from Chacabuco even bigger.

Ana María Naranjo (Colombia)

Ana María Naranjo (Colombia)

Ana works as a Civil Engineer in Medellín, and is one of the best long distance triathletes in Colombia. Last year he played the IM of Hawaii, where he reminds us how strong the wind was, that he had to stop at a refreshment station to be able to catch the drums.

This year he qualified for the World Cup in the IM of Texas where by mistake he did a marathon of almost 45km "I classified in the IM of Texas, being Cto. American had slots until the 5ª and I finished in 4ª position Something that happened to me in this race was that I ran almost 4km more to go from the point where it was the crossing for the goal, fortunately it took a lot of advantage to the 4ª and the 5ª more of 20 '... although in the end I lost the 3ª position for only 30' '. This thing that happened to me will never be forgotten as I was always in third position and because of an error of mine I lost the podium ".

For this 2015 Ana it has focused on working more strength and technique, especially swimming weak point also with the help of a nutritionist and exercise physiologist changed your eating habits to get to 100% to Hawaii.

Ana is married to Juan Valencia, our next protagonist They are a couple since 16 years ago and both have shared many competitions together, even podium in some Ironmans

Juan Valencia (Colombia)

Juan Valencia (Colombia)

Juan Valencia (husband of Ana Mª Naranjo) is one of the best IM triathletes in the world, in 2014 he finished 3rd in the world ranking in his age group. He has raced 3 times in Kona and this will be his 4th world championship. He qualified in the IM of Texas being 1st in 35-39 and his goal this year will be "The same as my other 300 rivals ... win in Hawaii."

On the other hand we want to highlight the team of Juan (and also Ana Mª) which is Golong4all, possibly one of the "best" in the world in IM within the GGEE, since they are only 5 members ... and 3 of them will be in Kona . As Juan tells us: "Golong4all, is a team that seeks to demonstrate that anyone is made to achieve what is proposed no matter how absurd their goal.

The best example ... us, ordinary people who with all the fear in the world decided to create a goal that seemed impossible, that's why we continually write #crealoimpossible, because to achieve it, we have to not only believe, but also create ". Finally we have asked him for some advice for all those who compete in the World Cup: "Do not forget to respect their rivals, do nothing new, trust what trained, remember that you are the best in the world and in turn to the world's best face, in the end, simply crossing the finish line in Hawaii, It is a memory you will never forget. "

Juan José Martí Navío @jjnavio

NOTE: Data obtained from the start list of the official IM website.

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