Great participation at the A Lanzada Ocean Race in Spain

Esteban Medina, main favorite, on the start line. Photo: Club de Mar Ría de Aldán

It was held last Saturday on the waters of the Rias Baixas (Galicia, Spain) the 2nd edition of the surfski race A Lanzada Ocean Race, strating from the beach of the same name and with a downwind format. The day, contrary to what might be expected at this time of year was sunny with not much wind, which made the competition go on very calm water, to the joy of some and despair of others, as often happens on these occasions.

Participation, in the same way, had nothing to detract from many of the races held at the height of the season, with 60 paddlers ...
running into the Atlantic Ocean to complete the approximately 15 kilometers of the race. On paper, the double boat race had all eyes focused on it, with the presence of world champions such as French Olympic Cyrille Carré or Spanish marathonian Iván Alonso. However, the race yielded a rather uneven duel with Rémi Pété and Carré paddling on their own almost from the the start and doing a solo race to reach the finish line 4 minutes ahead of Alonso and Diego Piña (Kayak Tudense). The paddlers who completed the podium were Juan Manuel Gago and Jesús Dacosta (Club de Mar Ría de Aldán).

He did have a lot more excitement the SS1 race where the paddlers had a much closer fight all along the course. Finally, victory was decided by less than a minute for the favorite, Esteban Medina (Real Club Náutico de Gran Canaria), who managed to prevail over Víctor Rodríguez (Kayak Tudense) and the Basque Ion Sagrado (Santiagotarrak), a truly versatile paddler.

No less exciting was the Masters category, where two big names staged the closest finish in the afternoon, with Oscar Chalupsky imposing by just 15 seconds to four times Sella champion Rafa Quevedo. Another Basque, Mikel Lauzurika, completed the podium in this category.

In females, Sara Rafael got the victory ahead of María del Palacio.

In the following pics you can see all the results: