The 5th Sailfish Open Water competition enjoyed plentiful participation and an excellent sporting atmosphere, declaring Rebeca Santos and Michael Ledda victors in the 5 Km event of the Copa de España de Aguas Abiertas (Spanish Open Water Cup)
More than 500 participants gathered on Saturday 18 May for the 5th Sailfish Lanzarote Open Water competition held at Playa Grande in Puerto del Carmen. A highlight was the presence of Jan Sibbersen, founder and CEO of Sailfish, who came to enjoy the event and to accompany the participants from the first moment. Throughout the day, which saw highs of 30ºC, there was a fantastic sporting atmosphere in the official event marquee.
The first of the competitions – the Dolphin category – began at 10:15, with the youngsters covering a distance of 400 meters. Carla de Marco came in first place, followed by Nataska Ivancikova and Naita Jaen. In the male event, Ivancik Dominik was the first to cross the finishing line, followed by Matías Padrón and Israel Calero. In the Shark category, over an 800-metre course, María Barrios was proclaimed winner, followed by Jimena Martínez and Ainara López in second and third position respectively. In the male category, Iker Fernández came in first place, followed by Juan José de Armas in second position, and Nicolas Manzatto finished in third place.
Before starting the Adult event, which covered two distances – 1.9 and 3.8 km –, a minute’s silence was held in memory of Alejandro Candela, last year’s winner over the 3.8 km distance. The winner of the 1.9 km event was Emma Pallant (00:27:38), followed by Ana Gómez (00:28:19) and Lucía Guadalupe (00:28:33). In the male category, victory went to Luis Guardarfía (00:24:08), followed by Óscar Martín (00:24:12) and Alejandro Ibarra (00:25:15).
The 3.8 km distance counts towards the Copa de Canarias de Aguas Abiertas (Canary Islands Open Water Cup) which is a great incentive for swimmers of both sexes, who fought hard to win all the way to the final metres. In the women’s category, Kennedy Hope was proclaimed winner (00:50:35), in second position came Ainoha Santana (00:50:35) and Siobain Harris took third place (00:52:16). In the men’s category, the podium was occupied by Emilio Aguayo in first place (00:47:37), Javier Betancort ranked second (00:47:39) and Xabier Llobet took third (00:47:50).
The final event took place over of 5 km, with this race counting toward the Copa de España de Aguas Abiertas (Spanish Open Water Cup). In the women’s category, Rebeca Santos was the first to cross the finishing line with a time of 01:00:46, second place went to Estíbaliz Pérez (01:04:37) and third place to Inés Arroyo (01:09:46). In the men’s event, Michael Ledda won (01:00:46), second place went to Federico Bini (01:01:24) and Davide Ledda (01:01:24) took third place.
The trophies were handed over at 14:00 in the presence of Jan Sibbersen, founder and CEO of Sailfish, Lorenzo Reyes, Director of Sports of the Cabildo de Lanzarote and Francisco Javier Aparicio, Councillor of Sports in the Municipality of Tías. After handing out prizes to all the winners in the different categories, Juan Carlos Albuixech, director of Sands Beach Active thanked all participants for the great enthusiasm they had shown in the event and announced that the next edition of the Sailfish Lanzarote Open Water would be held on 16 May 2020.
