The Doñana Challenge 2014 expects to surpass the participation figures of the previous edition

Desafío Doñana, one of the most demanding resistance tests of those held annually in Andalusia, will celebrate its fifth edition on the next September 20

 

 

The Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, Luciano Alonso, has presented the test, which will be held next September 20

 

El Doñana Challenge, one of the most demanding resistance tests that are held annually in Andalusia, will celebrate its fifth edition next September 20. The test, which is organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport along with technical support from the Andalusian Triathlon Federation, expects to surpass the participation figures of the previous edition, given the current rate of registration.

 

The test, which was presented today at the Real Club Nautico de Sanlúcar de Barrameda by the Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, Luciano Alonso, accompanied by the Councilor for Sports of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Juan Marín, the president of the Andalusian Federation of Triathlon, José María Merchán, and the triathletes Jon Karro and Ana Ruz, is an endurance race within the long distance segment, composed of three sports disciplines: cycling, swimming and running.

 

Luciano Alonso stressed that the Doñana Challenge "is a unique test within the sector's offer, and its uniqueness is determined by the different order and distances of the disciplines with respect to other triathlon tests, and by a route that runs through places and environments of singular beauty and sensitivity as they are the mouth of the Guadalquivir and the National and Natural Park of Doñana ".

 

Alonso also noted that "from Andalusia we encourage the practice of sports for our citizens with events of this nature and with support for grassroots sports, which we have included in the new Sports Law, whose project has been approved by the Government Council of the Board, and that will help to increase the practice in our community, currently, in a 42,6 percent ".

 

 

Juan Marín thanked the Counselor for the bet he made in his day "because this test was carried out despite all the difficulties and that has Sanlúcar as a nerve center one more year of the competition. From here we invite all Sanluqueños to the next 20 in September to come to Bajo Guía to encourage the athletes ".

 

José María Merchán, for his part, congratulated himself for "the celebration of this triathlon again, novel, unique for the change in the order of the disciplines and for the hardness of its route, which has already made it well known outside our borders. and to which many triathletes come every year ".

 

The race will be played individually, both in women and men, and in women's, men's and mixed relay teams. The cycling segment will travel a distance of 90 kilometers, a novelty of the previous edition, with departure and arrival in Sanlúcar, running through the towns of Rota, Chipiona, El Puerto de Santa María or Jerez de la Frontera. The distances of the swimming and running segments are maintained - 1 km. I swim at the mouth of the Guadalquivir and 30 km. of running race -, with the start and finish of the race on foot at the same point, the Punta de Malandar.

 

A sport in constant growth

 

Andalusia has a natural wealth of parks and natural landscapes that facilitates and invites the practice of triathlon, which has allowed a spectacular growth of this sport, and has become a reference in the celebration of tests, with a large number of clubs and federative licenses, to which we must add the triathletes who practice this sport outside the federated competition.

 

"In recent years, Andalusia has become the community with the largest number of tests organized in this discipline. In the 2006 year only 27 tests were held, and in 2013 were more than 125 competitions in the calendar, 45 of them children, an important element of sports promotion, which comes to endorse the magnificent work done by the Andalusian Triathlon Federation " , said Luciano Alonso.

 

A total of 2.657 federative licenses has this sport in Andalusia, which places it in the fourth autonomous community in number of licenses. In addition, 118 clubs are federated, a figure only surpassed by Catalonia and Valencia, when in 2006 there were 45 federated clubs.

 

Variation of the order of disciplines

 

Desafío Doñana is a long distance triathlon sports competition, but with the variation of the usual order of the three disciplines, and in which the triathletes must be able to overcome the adversities of the terrain where the competition runs, since the cyclist segment has the added difficulty of the strong winds of the coast of Cadiz, swimming at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River is a plus of effort by the currents and running through the sand of the beach of Doñana National Park is much harder than doing it by asphalt or other surface.

 

Four editions of Desafío Doñana have been held to date, the first of them at 2009, becoming one of the tests with the greatest participation in this type of endurance competitions, especially for the attractiveness and hardness of its route, when traveling by bicycle for places of great beauty of the province of Cádiz, to swim across the Guadalquivir, and run on foot along the beach of the Doñana National Park. It is a competition in which a wide variety of athletes participate, because besides being ideal for long distance triathletes it is specially designed and also oriented for cyclists, runners and marathoners, swimmers or duathletes.

 

Further information: www.desafiodonana.com