Paratriathlon in Spain continued to grow last weekend, with another successful race held during the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Madrid.
On Saturday, over 20 paratriathletes lined up to race the event in Madrid’s Case de Campo park for what turned out to be one of the most exciting and moving moments of the weekend, when the crowd got behind the paratriathletes to cheer them loudly through the course. The hard work and enthusiasm of organisers and volunteers to prepare and stage the race was also on show.
The Spanish Triathlon Federation has long been a proud supporter of paratriathlon and it announced in December 2010 that paratriathlon would become and official part of the Paralympic sports family in Spain - in the same month that the official announcement came from the International Paralympic Committee that paratriathlon would be debut as a Paralympic sport at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
The beginnings of paratriathlon in Spain can be traced back to the 2009 Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series Madrid. Since then, this discipline has experienced unbelievable growth, and the federation’s database reports that there are more than 150 athletes with a disability in Spain are interested in the sport. Spain was one of the first countries to include paratriathlon event in a Dextro Energy Triathlon Series competition, one of the first federations to give official status to paratriathlon - with a Spanish national championship and then duathlon - and is extremely committed to encouraging the development of its paratriathletes of all levels. This support was shown again at the second round of the Dextro Energy Triathlon Series in Madrid last weekend.
Javier Gomez, reigning ITU world champion, has recently expressed his support to the initiative and other top world athletes have also shown their commitment.
“Having Paratriathlon in the Paralympic Games will be inspiring and have a great impact on paratriathletes and society at large. The world should learn about the values that the Paralympic Games embody: willpower, determination, courage, inspiration and equity.”
One of the dearest hopes of the Spanish Triathlon Federation is to promote our sport to people with a disability. Its goal is that paratriathlon reaches world recognition.
The Madrid race was the second world class paratriathlon in Spain this year, after the inaugural ITU Cross Paratriathlon Championships in Extremadura - where Spain won four out of five gold medals.
RESULTS:
TRI 4 JOEL ROSINBUM (USA) 0:33:31
TRI 4 TONI FRANCO SALAS (ESP) 0:34:02
TRI 4 FRANCISCO JAVIER ALVAREZ ALVAREZ (ESP) 0:35:02
TRI 6 FERNANDO RIANO RIANO (ESP) 0:35:20
TRI 6 MOISES OSUNA DURAN (ESP) 0:35:27
TRI 1 FRANCESC SOLA GARCIA (ESP)00:35:47
TRI 7 CESAR MORAN GONZALEZ (ESP) 0:36:01
TRI 4 ARNAUD HUTINET (ESP) 0:36:25
TRI 4 JOAQUIN CARRASCO AVILA (ESP) 0:37:13
TRI 5 MIKEL GARMENDIA FERNANDEZ (ESP) 0:37:22
TRI 4 ANGEL LUIS MERINO GOMEZ (ESP) 0:37:28
TRI 2 DAVID PEIFFER (FRA) 0:38:08
TRI 6 SUSANA RODRIGUEZ GACIO (ESP) 0:38:37
TRI 7 JAVIER GARCIA MARTINEZ (ESP) 0:38:54
TRI 4 JORGE OREJON MIGUEL (ESP) 0:39:06
TRI 1 RAFAEL LOPEZ ORDONEZ (ESP) 0:41:23
TRI 3 RAUL ZAMBRANA ROMERO (ESP) 0:44:15
TRI 2 JAVIER MERIDA PRIETO (ESP) 0:46:02
TRI 3 VALERIANO MORENO GARCIA (ESP) 0:46:15
TRI 3 SANTOS CABALLERO GONZÁLEZ (ESP) 0:47:57
TRI 1 NORBERTO CHAVEZ OLIVA (ESP) 0:52:06
TRI 3 RAUL LLAMAZARES RODRIGUEZ (ESP) 0:55:55
TRI 5 FRANCISCO GUTIERREZ DIAZ (ESP) 01:07:13