Posted: January 24, 2005

Multisport: Dane Aksel Nielsen wins the Lanzarote Duathlon

A beautiful day, blue sky, warm shining sun, many spectators, a very nice atmosphere: 122 participants - 100 men and 22 women...

A little longer distances than last year: 5 km run - 20 km bike - 2,5 km run (last year is had been 3-20-3).

10.00 a.m. and German Stefan Vucovik gave the pistol start for the Lanzarote International Duathlon 2005.

Among the participants, some interesting names: the Americans Greg Watson, World Champion in Long Distance Duathlon and his fiancée, Cecily Tynan, the Dutch Ivonne Van Vlerken, World vice-Champion in Long Distance Duathlon, the Danes Aksel and Jens Nielsen and also Kenneth Rasmussen, the local Tinajo upcoming athletes Omar Delgado Cabrera and Oscar Padrón Duarte and some more Lanzarote names, such as Mustafa Akodad and Gregorio Cáceres Morales, the best local athlete in the last Ironman Lanzarote edition. A strong race, exciting, especially in the leading men...Aksel Nielsen, Greg Watson, Kenneth Rasmussen and the Irish Brian Campbell came in almost together after the first run segment, after the bike, Aksel was leading by 17 seconds... would he be able to maintain that...?

He did... he managed and crossed the finish line after 01:00:46 with 24 seconds ahead of World Champion Greg Watson... Congratulations!

Kenneth Rasmussen needed another minute and a half to come in third, followed by the Irish Brian Campbell and the local boy, Omar Delgado Cabrera fifth!

As to the women, less suprises: the Dutch Ivonne Van Vlerken won the race - though runner-up Jannie Schöne Schmidt from Denmark biked quicker, the latter could not cope with Ivonne's run pace! And Greg Watson's fiancée did a very good race too, coming in third.

The athletes would comment that the weather was surely gorgeous for the spectators, but quite hot and windy for them! Congratulations to all participants, even those who did not manage to finish - at least you gave it a try!

And thank you to all volunteers: as always, they have done a great job!

For full results and pics, click the following link: www.clublasanta.com and check the Latest News!

Source: Isabelle Janssens