Emilio Martín and Irene Loizate lead the Spanish in the Duathlon World Championship in Pontevedra

This weekend starts the Multisport World Championship en Pontevedra and the duathlon will be the inaugural event, with the presence of the best national duathletes and great rivals from all over the world.

 The names to follow within the Spanish team will be the European medalists in Ibiza, Emilio Martín e Irene Loizate, to which the recent Spanish Champion in Soria joins, Antonio Benito. The three will be the spearhead of a magnificent Spanish team that will surely fight for the medals in all categories.

Emilio Martín will give everything

 Emilio Martín, does not need presentation, Champion of Spain of the discipline in multiple occasions, accumulates European and world medals in equal measure, will fight for the maximum before the hard rivals that will be presented in line of exit as they will be the French duathletes (Choquert, Le Berre and Nicolas), Hungarian Lazslo Tarnai or the young Belgian Arnaud Dely, who will also fight for the sub23 medals.

Antonio Benito, current Champion of Spain after a sensational race beating Emilio Martin himself just a few weeks ago in Soria, will be another of our great strengths in the fight for medals, besides Javier Martín, who already knows what it is to climb international podiums in sub23 category, and who faces his first test in elite category.

The list of Spaniards is completed by two veterans as Luismi Martín Berlanas, Olympic in 3000m obstacles and that his 47 years is still among the best duathletes in our country, and Cristóbal García Guillén, with extensive international experience in duathlon and who was the best national qualifier in the 2018 World Championship held in Fyn (Denmark). Young Carlos Oliver, that has had a good season of national duathlon, and Sergio Correa, will be the sub23 representatives, who fight for the medals.

The very open female test

 Two proper names stand out in the women's Start List, the current World Champion, the Austrian Sandrina Illes and European Champion, the French Sandra Levenez. Both will be the big favorites to win with Irene Loizate trying to fight with them the position of honor after his great exhibition in the recent Championship of Spain and with the European medal of Ibiza under his arm.

Irene will be accompanied by Sonia Bejarano on the departure list, with the last minute cancellations of Jocelyn Brea, for personal reasons, and María Varo, after being knocked down by bicycle in one of her last trainings for the Spanish Championship. Marta Pintanel y Tania Alvárez they will be the Spanish sub23 representatives.

1.280 Age Groups

 The same Saturday, the triathletes in GGEE, in addition to enjoying the elite races, will compete in the two sprint and standard distances for the world title of their category, ascending the number of participants in this event to 1.280.

 On Sunday in the early hours, it will be the turn of the junior category, where Spain will fight for the medals with Sergio Baxter and Ángel Sánchez (Champion and Runner-up of Duathlon Spain, respectively) in the men's category and Laura Durán (Champion of Spain of Duathlon) and Natalia Hidalgo in the women's event. 

The Paratriathlon

 Also on Sunday, the paratriathlon will have great prominence with a good number of Spaniards who will surely delight us with great successes:

• José Joaquín Martínez and Ricardo Marín (PTS2)
• Dani Molina, Kini Carrasco and Raúl Zambrana (PTS3)
• Jorge Orejón, Francisco Jesus San Martin and Aaron Ortiz (PTS4)
• Raquel Domínguez (PTS4)
• Jairo Ruiz and Rubén Martínez (PTS5)
• Fina Guimarey (PTS5)
• José Manuel Quintero and Iván Heras (PTWC)

Schedule

The test will start at 11:30 with the men's test while the women's test will start at 13:45 p.m. with a distance of 10 km of running, 40 km of cycling and 5 km of running.

Further information:    https://pontevedra2019.org/itu/