Tías (Lanzarote) (EFE) weather throughout the day on Saturday
One of the toughest triathlon tests in the world started at 07:00 in the morning in Puerto del Carmen, with just over a thousand athletes who jumped into the sea to complete the 3.8-kilometre segment of swimming.
Next, they covered a good part of the island by bicycle, with a 180-kilometre route, and ended up again in Puerto del Carmen with a 42.2-kilometre run on foot.
The Dutchman Niek Heldoorn was in the top positions of the test from the beginning, being in charge of leading the swimming. In the cycling part, he found himself surpassed by Cameron Wurf, the Australian showing himself to be very strong in this segment, which helped him to lead his pursuers by more than eight minutes.
As often happens, the 42.2-kilometre foot race that takes place along Avenida de Las Playas in Puerto del Carmen handed down its verdict. Frenchman Arthur Horseau, with a strong pace, gradually narrowed the gap, reaching the lead at kilometer 28. From that moment, he dosed his forces and maintained a difference of about two minutes with respect to the rest of the pursuers.
Arthur Horseau crossed the finish line as the winner of the thirty-first edition of Ironman Lanzarote, using a final time of 8 hours, 22 minutes and 21 seconds.
Second place on the podium went to Niek Heldoorn (8:24:48), and third would be the Australian Cameron Wurf (8:30,:17), who had to settle for the bronze medal after leading the test for many kilometers .
In the women’s category, Lydia Dant repeats her triumph in the Ironman Lanzarote and, for the second consecutive year, she crosses the finish line as the winner of one of the toughest triathlons in the world. The British dominated the test from the start and it was in the foot race that she perfectly managed the wide difference that she had acquired in the two previous segments.
Lydia Dant used a total time of 9 hours, 59 minutes and 13 seconds, worsening by almost 22 minutes the time achieved in the last edition. The women’s podium was completed with the second place of the Belgian Liesbeth Verbiest (10:06:10) and the third position of the French Jeanne Collonge (10:20:53)
The Spanish Jodi Montraveda stayed at the gates of the Ironman Lanzarote podium, finishing the test in fourth position with a time of 8 hours, 43 minutes and 59 seconds, improving the eighth place achieved in the last edition.
For his part, the Spanish Gonzalo Fuentes crossed the finish line as seventh classified.