The Andalucía Doñana Challenge will not take place in 2020

The 2020 edition of the Doñana Challenge was scheduled to take place on Saturday, September 26, and due to the Coronavirus pandemic we are suffering has been forced to cancel the test.

This is the official statement that the organization has sent us

The organization cannot guarantee the safety of athletes, one of the main objectives and hallmark of the Andalusian event in recent years

The Ministry of Education and Sports, as the organizer of the Andalucía Doñana Challenge, has made the decision from the obligatory responsibility to cancel the 2020 edition, precisely because quality and safety cannot be guaranteed to the athlete, one of the main objectives and hallmark in the latest editions of this sporting event.

Given the exceptional circumstances that are being experienced at this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in a state of uncertainty in the future throughout the world of sport, this decision has been taken as a posture of due prudence, not to create false expectations that later cannot be met.

The General Secretariat for Sport sent a statement to the Andalusian sports sector on March 11, in which a series of recommendations were transferred to the health emergency caused by COVID-19, including the suspension of all events, activities and sports competitions that were scheduled to take place in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, until further communication, depending on the evolution of the health situation.

The Andalucía Doñana Challenge held its tenth edition in 2019 with great success and satisfaction from athletes, institutions, volunteers and organization.

This success, supported by the constant growth of participants since the origins of the test, has been based fundamentally on the care and attention paid by the organization to athletes, fundamentally, and to the rest of the people who make up the team in one way or another of this complex sporting event.

Safety as a primary objective

The current situation does not yet allow the athlete to be offered the certainty and security for their participation.

This uncertainty also extends to the various mandatory administrative authorizations for its celebration, as well as the availability of institutions and bodies and state security forces.

To this we must also add the current state of physical preparation of athletes and, above all, the consequences of concentrating almost 500 people in close physical proximity, as well as the safety of more than 500 volunteers, the true soul of this test, that year after year collaborate in it, and without which it could not be held.

In this trance, always complicated for any sports organization, it has wanted to put the needs of the Red Cross, Civil Protection, Local Police and Civil Guard, which are so necessary and fundamental for the development of this event, and which are currently serving with its service to the demands derived from this pandemic.

The Doñana Challenge was scheduled to be held on Saturday, September 26, starting in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, with a 100-kilometer route in the bicycle segment, crossing various towns in the province of Cádiz, swimming across the Guadalquivir at its mouth, and run on foot for 30 kilometers in Punta de Malandar, through the Doñana sand.

The organization of the event, which, given the initial uncertainty, had postponed the opening of the registration period to participate in this long-distance triathlon, hopes and wishes that a return to normality will allow it to resume in the conditions that this special event deserves and return in the eleventh edition in 2021.