Challenge Madrid press conference on the cancellation of the race
"Challenge Madrid remains on hiatus, and will return to the Puerta del Sol, when it can be guaranteed"
This morning the press conference organized by Challenge Madrid took place in Madrid regarding the non-inclusion in the calendar of the Madrid Triathlon Federation, which has led to its cancellation for this year.
Alfonso Rodríguez de Sadia as director of Challenge Madrid and Juanan Fernández as manager of Challenge Spain were present at the event.
Ramiro Lahera, President of the Madrid triathlon federation, was also invited to the press conference, who did not attend the event.
In the appearance, Alfonso has presented the reasons and arguments why Challenge Madrid is not being held this year, showing documents since 2015, which was when the first event that was born under the KM0 brand was held, which would endorse Challenge Madrid as a priority in the month of June before other Half de Media Distancia events that will be held on the same dates in Madrid.
During the press conference, both have expressed their interest in holding the event under the aegis of the autonomous federation since they are part of an international triathlon circuit such as the Challenge Family, at the same time they have given the necessary arguments so that the priority as a Half test in Madrid can be reassessed under the federative criteria to be able to choose the date of celebration.
This year the test was going to give slots for The Samorin Championship and they were in negotiations to be included in the PTO ranking.
Alfonso during the press conference has shown the statement of the Madrid Federation regarding the exclusion in the calendar for the month of June, and has shown at the same time that the reasons that the federation has given for their exclusion do not agree with the federative requirements when choosing a date, since it is the longest event in Half distance for the dates that are requested.
It must be taken into account that Challenge Madrid is part of the Challenge Family franchise and the dates that were decided for its dispute (The chosen date was June 5) had been chosen in consensus with the rest of the tests that make up the franchise.
They commented that it is true that the Federation proposed that the date change for September but as indicated they are part of an international calendar and it had been agreed to fit in the international calendar, so they could not change it.
In the exhibition they commented that the FMTRI competition regulations state that there must be a minimum of 15 days between test and test of the same modality and now with the departure of the Challenge Madrid test calendar it is only separated by 13 days the test to leave Madrid and to continue, so this point would not be fulfilled.
On the other hand, they also affirm that another important point for the eligibility of a test, which refers to the age of editions held previously, Alfonso claims that his test would have priority over Half Madrid, which held its first edition in 2020.
See this post on Instagram
Challenge Madrid was already held in 2019
In the final part of the appearance they have affirmed that they have no intention of continuing with the test since they do not feel on equal terms with other competitions
They have also indicated that they invited the other affected party, the federation, to the wheel to hold an open debate and clarify what happened, but they did not receive any kind of response, as there was no representative at the event.
At the moment the position of the Madrid Federation is not known but what is clear is that the Madrid and national triathlon has lost an opportunity to have an international test in the capital of Spain.
There are no previous results.
