The unstoppable growth of women's triathlon in Spain

During this 2016 the women's triathlon in Spain has achieved many unthinkable results just a few years ago, shining intentionally in all categories and distances, from juniors to Ironman. We are going to do a little review of what the performance of the girls has been this year.

 ELITE ITU

At the ITU Elite level, the highlight was that the Spanish women won all three places for the Olympic Games. of Rio with Míriam Casillas, Carolina Routier y Ainhoa ​​Murua.

During 2016 all three had good results in WTS and especially in World Cups, where they achieved the most points. As well Anna Godoy he scored in WTS and CM.

Moreover Camila Alonso, Together with Zuriñe Rodríguez they were the only Spaniards to achieve ITU wins in this 2016, the Galician with victories in the Ibero-American championship of Havana in Cuba and the African Cup in Agadir in Morocco and the Basque with its victory in the Asian Cup of Aqaba in Jordan .

MIDDLE DISTANCE

At the international level, the two triathletes that have most shone are the Catalans Judith Corachán y Sara Loehr. Judith has done a great 2016 in the three 70.3 competitions she has played, 4ª in the Philippines, 3ª in Lanzarote and 8ª in Barhein. With these results, it is virtually classified for the 70.3 IM 2017 World Championship in the USA.

We must also add the victory of Corachán in the Challenge Peguera de Mallorca. As far as Sara Loehr is concerned, she continues her run of podiums in all the mid-distance triathlons she has finished, internationally at 2016 she was on the podium at the Challenges of Salou, Turku (Finland) and Peguera. Other Spaniards that have shone in some test of these circuits have been Guru Frades, Saleta Castro y Dolça Ollé

 HOMBRE DE HIERRO

The Hawaii World Cup was a historic milestone for Spanish professional triathletes, as for the first time two girls managed to qualify and be finishers in the most important triathlon in the world, Gurutze Frades y Saleta Castro. To achieve their classification both had to fight hard during many tests, highlighting the 3ª plaza de Guru in the IM of Brazil, and the 2ª and 6ª position of Saleta in the Ironmans of Maastrich and Frankfurt respectively.

In this distance it should also be noted that in this 2016 has There have been Spanish 5 that have come down from 10h in an Ironman distance triathlon, something that had never happened, seeing so many sub10h Spaniards, were: Gurutze Frades in the IM Brazil, Saleta Castro in Frankfurt and Maastrich, Ivet Farriols in the Ironcat, Cristina Ramirez in the IM Barcelona and Ruth Brito in Vitoria .

 DUATLÓN

In this category Mavi García got the bronze medal in the Gijón World Championship. The Balearic has also shone in cycling, being the current champion of Spain en route and bronze in CRI, achieved several national victories and brilliant results in international competitions. It should also be noted that Claudia Luna was proclaimed world champion sub23.

Also in Gijón there were also several world champions in paradijatlon, with the golds of Susana García y Mabel Gallardo in PT5, Raquel Domínguez in PT3 and Eva Moral in PT1.

 PARATRIATLÓN

In the Paralympic Games Rakel Mateo was 8ª in PT2 and Susana Gracia together with Mabel Gallardo they achieved the 5ª position in PT5. In the European Championship of Lisbon, Susana García y Mabel Gallardo they got the bronze medal.

 AGE GROUPS (IM 70.3 and Ironman)

We do not want to forget about the triathlete age groups that in this 2016 have achieved the records of participation in the Ironman 70.3 and Ironman World Championships. In the Ironman 70.3 World Championship played in Australia there were six Spanish: Marina Leboso, Isora Sosa, Silvia Noya, Ingrid Arning, Mª Jose Martínez Maroto y Rocío Chaves.

As far as Kona is concerned, five were the finishers: Sara Sanchez, Patricia Bueno, Lucia Pérez, Esther Leal y Carmen Gil. We must also quote Merce Magem who was European champion in the IM of Frankfurt in her age group but resigned from the slot, just like Yessica Pérez, who also managed to slot in his case in Maastrich but could not go to Kona.

All point to that in 2017 you can beat both records of participation since today there are four Spanish classified for the IM 70.3 World Cup (Tamar González, Mireia Masip, Ingrid Arning y Belen Izquierdo) and four for the Ironman World Championship (Alba Reguillo, Verónica Avene, Luciana Bermúdez y M. Cruz Palma.)

JUNIORS

The junior triathletes had a great performance in the European and the World Cup. In the European Championship they got 3 top10 (Inés Santiago 4ª, Cecilia Santamaría 8ª and Carmen Gómez 10ª). As regards the World Cup for the first time there were 3 girls, with two top5, Inés Santiago 4ª and Cecilia Santamaria 5ª, in addition to Carmen Gómez 58ª plaza finished A few months before the three had debuted in WTS, getting score Ines and Cecilia. Also, Santiago had an outstanding performance in the European Sprint Elite Championship, with a meritorious 7 position.

We do not want to dismiss this short summary of the performance of the juniors, without mentioning Sara Guerrero, who was 5ª in the European Cup of Tiszaujvaros and her debut in Olympic distance got a great 9ª place in the Spanish championship.

 PROMOTION AND POPULAR TRIATHLONES

There are many women who have started in this 2016 in the sport of transitions, an example is the Irongirls club in the Basque Country, where several women who had never run a triathlon formed a group of friends who were trained for several months, debuting 14 of them in the same triathlon, in the San Sebastian supersprint.

Like the Irongirls there are many groups of friends scattered throughout the Spanish geography that takes advantage of triathlons like the Santander Triatlon Series, which offer multiple distances, to start in triathlon. Another clear example was the Valencia Triathlon, with some 1000 women competing between all distances.

 

Photos: Miriam, Carolina and Ainhoa ​​→ FETRI Saleta → Felix Sanchez - Fotorunners, Gurutze → Ingokutsche, Camila → Triatlon Santo Domingo, Zuriñe → Facebook Zuriñe

Mavi → Facebook Mavi, Sara → Oriol Miro, Judith → Carlos Antonio Bernat