The national championship will be attended by the majority of Spanish triathletes who will be at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
Jesús Ortiz / dxtadaptado.com
The saying goes: in the absence of bread, good are cakes. With the international calendar paralyzed and full of unknowns, the Spanish Championship this Saturday becomes the great stimulus of the season for Spanish triathletes. Pontevedra, whose circuit will be shielded, under anti-Covid-19 measures and without access to the public, raises the curtain with a luxury poster, since most of the athletes who are fighting to go to the Paralympic Games will be present at the event. Tokyo in 2021.
Susana Rodríguez and Sara Loehr in Abu Dhabi in March.
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Susana Rodríguez, Eva Moral, Marta Francés and Josefina Guimarey will be the participants in the female category, while in the men’s event Jairo Ruiz, Héctor Catalá, Jota García, Dani Molina, Lionel Morales and ‘Kini’ Carrasco stand out, among others. The event will be a good test to measure the level of the triathletes after the long break due to the health crisis. The Galician city guarantees ample spaces in the surroundings of the Avenida de Buenos Aires so that the competition takes place with all the necessary conditions. On this occasion, fans will not be able to be present in the finish area and transition area, which will only be accessible to participants and staff.
The appointment will serve to see the debut of Susana Rodríguez with her new guide, Sara Loehr. “There are only a few days left for what seems to be the return to competition. The organization and the FETRI have made a great effort to keep this championship going and we will see how everything evolves in the coming days. I am looking forward to the day of returning. These months have been complicated by the pandemic that we are experiencing and because I have had some health problems that I now have under greater control. I’m in decent shape and to go home, even without an audience, would be great, ”says the triple world champion.
Another point to emphasize is the duel that will be experienced in the PTVI category between Héctor Catalá – current world champion – and Jota García – European champion. The first comes after more than a month of preparation at height, in Sierra Nevada. “I have been able to train throughout the quarantine and I feel fine. I am lucky to have a first-rate rival in Spain and it is a guarantee that the competition will be very close and contested. I never think we have faced a Spanish championship with so much enthusiasm, I don’t know if it will be the first and the last round of 2020, so let’s enjoy it, “says the Valencian, who will have Gustavo Rodríguez by his side,” who is full and wanting to get everything that is inside ”.
Héctor Catalá with his guide Gustavo Rodríguez.
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For his part, the Madrilenian will debut a guide, Pedro Andújar, with whom he has trained at the Los Alcázares Technification Center (Murcia), as well as with Luis Molina, his other support athlete. “It will possibly be the only test of the year, so we are happy, excited and eager to compete. It will be our debut, we have prepared it a lot. We are still a bit cautious and skeptical, because seeing how the situation evolves it is not clear to us that the championship is going to be held until the horn sounds. That day-to-day uncertainty is what we have the worst of, ”he laments.
The world ‘king’ in the PTS3 category, Dani Molina, had decided this course to take his foot off the gas and not wear himself out in the absence of objectives. “It didn’t make sense, so my coach, Dani Rodríguez, gave me some freedom to do whatever I wanted. I feel very well physically and mentally, swimming is good, cycling as well and running on Friday I made almost my best mark in the 5,000 meters, 19 minutes and 29 seconds, after 45 kilometers of strong cycling. When the body and mind are released, you relax, enjoy and live it in another way, the marks come out on their own. I want to put on the number and give a show so that people see that there is a lot of level in paratriathlon, “he says.
The bronze medalist at the Rio 2016 Games, Jairo Ruiz, faces the return “with great enthusiasm because, given the season, the international tests are being canceled, at least having an official test of a certain level is enough for us. A site to test the work we have been doing will be important. This year the Spanish championship will be a priority objective since we do not know if we will compete more. I am looking forward to the 22nd and to be able to run in Pontevedra ”, says the Almeria native.
Jairo Ruiz from Almeria during a test. Source: Triathlon
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Madrid’s Eva Moral was among the last to participate in a high-level appointment before the State of Alarm was decreed for the Covid-19 pandemic. In February he achieved a fifth place in the PTWC category (athletes who compete in the athletic chair and handbike) at the World Series in Davenport (Australia). “From there we have continued training a lot, during the confinement I kept my form. I spent three weeks concentrating in Sierra Nevada and now I want to see the state in which I am in Pontevedra and take the thorn out of competing ”, he says.
List of Contestants:
PTWC: Eva Moral, Álvaro Illobre and Higinio Rivero
PTS2: Ricardo Marín, José Joaquín Martínez and Lionel Morales
PTS3: Dani Molina and Kini Carrasco
PTS4: Juan Jesús Aguiar, Marta Francés, Jorge Orejón, Aarón Ortiz, Samuel Rodríguez, Marc Rodríguez, Francisco Jesús San Martín and Jesús Miguel Sánchez
PTS5: Jairo Ruiz and Josefina Guimarey
PTVI: Susana Rodríguez, Héctor Catalá, Jota García
PTSVII: Jorge Otalecu
Francisco Javier Álvarez has not passed the classification
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