Rasmus Henning imposes the law of the strongest, Víctor del Corral third

He was the big favorite and he showed it. Rasmus Henning, who has lived in Playitas for a year and a half, won the demanding Abu Dhabi triathlon a few weeks ago and arrived at the Majorera event, at his house, in great shape. The Danish triathlete had great competition throughout the course, since the level of entries was very high, with the presence of prominent figures worldwide.

At eight in the morning the test for the professionals began, while the rest of the participants began the swimming segment a few minutes later. During the 1,9 kilometer swim, Rasmus Henning and his compatriot Rasmus Petraus dominated, setting a high pace. Petraus came out of the water first, but was overtaken in transition by Henning, while England's Daniel Halksworth showed he could be the surprise of the day.

This is how the nearly 86 kilometers of bicycle began, slightly less than the 90 originally programmed. But Petraus couldn't keep up. Henning and Halksworth went almost 70 kilometers together. On the hard climbs, the Brit prevailed, but on the descents the Dane surpassed him. It was in the last kilometers, before reaching the Playitas Resort complex again, when Henning took some advantage.

Those seconds were extended in the foot race. The remaining half marathon, in a demanding two-lap route from Las Playitas to Gran Tarajal, was the sentence to the test. Petraus withdrew after reaching Gran Tarajal at kilometer 6. After swimming almost two kilometers and cycling 86 kilometers, Henning ran the half marathon in 1:15:46.

To the jubilation of those present, Rasmus Henning reached the finish line and stopped the clock in 3:57:16, leading Daniel Halksworth by almost four minutes -4:01:09-. The Catalan triathlete, resident in Lanzarote, Víctor del Corral -4:01:41- completed the podium.

Among the professional elite that attended Fuerteventura yesterday, it is worth highlighting the sixth place of the Spanish Mikel Elgezagal, the seventh of the former professional cyclist of the Mercatone Uno, Massimo Cigana, or the eighth of the Englishman Stephen Bayliss.

In the women's category, as planned, the victory was wide open. The fight was very close, but the English Emma-Kate Lidbury was the strongest. She finished in 18th place in the general classification, with a global time of 4:32:41. She was the first to get out of the water, her great specialty, and this served her to manage her advantage and expand it.

The English Lucy Gossage -4: 35: 25- was second and the third place was for the Swedish Eva Nystrom -4: 37: 11-.

The Challenge Fuerteventura, in its second edition, once again demonstrated that this competition has achieved a prominent place at an international level in a very short time. The level of registrations has risen with respect to the first edition, and the organization has been very satisfied with the result of the test. The Playitas Resort complex, the nerve center of the Challenge, became the world triathlon benchmark for days, and in this 2012 edition also the Canary Islands benchmark, since the event was used to celebrate the Long Distance Canary Islands Championship.

Source: canarias7.es