(Gaspar Nóbrega/COB)
Viña del Mar – Brazilian Vittoria Lopes came close to the gold medal in the triathlon at the Pan de Santiago 2023, but ended up off the podium. She led the swimming, managed to gain more than a minute in cycling, but in the race she was surpassed by seven opponents and came in eighth place. Djenyfer Arnold and Luisa Baptista, the other two Brazilians in the race, finished in ninth and 18th place, respectively. The Pan de Santiago triathlon takes place at sea and through the streets of Playa El Sol, in Viña del Mar. The individual races are this Thursday (2) and the relay is Saturday (4).
As soon as she left the race, Vittória confirmed that the idea was to escape swimming and cycling and try to hold on in the race. “That was the strategy. I was feeling really good for the first two laps of the race, but out of nowhere my foot froze because I worked so hard on the bike. But, ok, the important thing is that the first two laps (of the race) went according to plan and it is increasingly about tuning the engines,” he said. “Regarding the work ahead of the Olympic Games, I am quite satisfied with what I did. Now it’s time to analyze and continue on the path,” she added.
Strong swim and pedal
Vittoria Lopes, silver medalist in Lima 2019, led the swim from the first strokes and took the lead at the first buoy of the 1.5 km circuit. She remained ahead the entire time with Mexican Lizeth Rueda on her tail. The Brazilian clocked 18min15, the same time as her rival. In the transition to the 40km cycle she was ten seconds faster and began to open up an advantage. In the first lap of the pedal circuit, the Brazilian was 19 seconds ahead of Rueda.
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Djenyfer Arnold was the second from Team Brazil to get out of the water, in seventh place, and Luisa Baptista, champion in Lima 2019, finished the swim in eighth. Djenyfer and Luisa, who suffered from femur edema during the season, did not start cycling well, losing positions. In the second round they recovered and started to form a group of athletes behind only Vittoria Lopes. They were almost a minute behind the Brazilian who was leading the women’s triathlon at the Pan de Santiago. On the fifth lap of the pedal, the distance was above 1min10s, but returned to around 60 seconds, an advantage that dropped to less than 40s in the transition to the 10km race.
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Fall in the race
In the last modality, Lizeth Rueda, a Mexican who came out of the water near Vittoria, began to grow. She spent 17 seconds behind the Brazilian in the first lap of the race, bringing with her compatriot Rosa Maria Vidal, Colombian Maria Velasquez Solo and Erica Hawley, from Bermuda. Djenyfer Arnold and Luisa Baptista lost contact with the front block. The dispute became dramatic in the second round. Vittoria Lopes was ahead, but with the Mexicans and the Colombian coming drooling behind. Thus, in the middle of the second lap, the three overtook the Brazilian and took off to form the podium with Lizeth Rueda in first, Maria Velasquez Solo in second and Rosa Maria Vidal in third.
Journalist with more than 20 years of experience, more than half of them in the field of sports. He has been at OTD since 2019 and, as a result, has already covered the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, in addition to the Pan-American Games in Lima and Santiago.
