Press release:
XIII IRONMAN LANZAROTE CANARIAS TRIATHLON 2004
The French René Rovera and Spanish Virginia Berasategui, both rookies at Lanzarote, win the Ironman 2004
The thirteenth edition of the Ironman Lanzarote Canarias Triatlón that took place on Saturday 22nd of May 2004 in Puerto del Carmen (Lanzarote), has been won by the French triathlete René Rovera and the Spanish, Bask, Virginia Berasategui Luna. The Frenchman, aged 36 and 7th at Hawaii in 1998, took 8 h 48 min 31 seconds and for the ninth time in the history of the race, finished in less than nine hours; Thomas Hellriegel set the record of the race in 1995 with 8 h 35 min 37 s. The Spanish, aged 28 and ITU World Champion (Ibiza 2003) took 9 h 41 min 51 s., only 16 minutes more than Paula Newby Fraser in 1995, when the best Ironwoman ever set the course record (9 h 24 min 39 s), so that Berasategui was actually the best ever in Lanzarote.
In the men's race, the German Steffen Liebetrau, who lead the whole bike course and part of the run, came in second, in 8 h 51 min 15 s, two minutes and six seconds ahead of the Spanish favourite Félix Martínez Rubio, third for the second year in a row.
As to women, Canadian Gillian Bakker repeated her second position from 2002, crossing the finish in a time of 10 h 16 min 42 s, some 35 minutes later than Berasategui, who lead the race from start to finish, increasing the gap between herself and her follower. Third was the German Sonja Heubach - 10 h 17 min 38 s, very close to Bakker.
A total of 769 triathletes participated into this 13th edition of the Ironman Lanzarote Canarias Triathlon, most of them making it into the finish (DNF's were less than 10% this year)
CANARIAN CHAMPIONSHIP
The French but Canarian resident* Fabrice Biteaud became Canarian Champion, comino in 11th overall, and silver went to the local boy Gregorio Cáceres Morales, who finihsed 39th in 10:06:39. Brit settled on Lanzarote Mark Andrew Thorn took Canarian bronce.
*The Canarian rules allow residents for more than 3 years to enter the championship.
IBERIAN CHAMPIONSHIP
The Ironman was also Iberian Championship on LD Triatlón. The winner here was Félix Martínez Rubio, followed by Jordi Alsina Casas and Ibán Rodríguez Martínez third.
The overall women's champion, Viginia Berasategui Luna took the Iberian title as well, Ana Casares Polo took silver and Nerea Martínez Urruzola, bronze.
More results on www.ironmanlanzarote.com
|
