SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Tenerife Bluetrail, the highest race in Spain organized by the Cabildo through the public company Ideco, this year will have the participation of more than 2,000 athletes from 33 countries who will cross a total of eight municipalities in the different modalities with which tells the race, already converted into a national and international benchmark.
The twelfth edition of the test will start tomorrow Thursday with the Night Vertical, which will begin at 9:00 p.m. in Barranco Hondo, in the municipality of Candelaria, and will run for 5.25 kilometers of ascent to the finish line, located in Las Lagunetas. The rest of the modalities will be held next Saturday from different municipalities with the main novelty of the incorporation of three new races for families, children and jöelettes.
The Tenerife Bluetrail also brings as a novelty the incorporation of the Diamond category to recognize the effort of athletes over 70 years of age; the Cadet for athletes between 15 and 17 years old; and the Volcán, aimed at people with disabilities who run a modality other than the Challenge or the Jöelettes. The location of the finish line is also another novelty, which this year moves from Lago Martiánez to Reyes Católicos square in Puerto de la Cruz.
The acting president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, pointed out that the Tenerife Bluetrail “is not designed only for athletes, but also seeks to attract children, families, the elderly or people with disabilities to become a competition for all Tenerife residents “. In addition, he highlighted its “ability to attract athletes at an international level, which shows that we are capable of offering something new and differentiating.”
The acting Island Councilor for Sports, Concepción Rivero, thanked “the effort, work and heart of all those who are part of the event from the public administration, private entities or society itself”. On the other hand, she recalled that the collection of numbers will take place at the Sport Summit sports fair that is held at the Fairgrounds and will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
The acting director of Tourism, Laura Castro, stated that one in three visitors who come to Tenerife do so to practice some type of sport or physical activity, especially those related to the natural environment. For this reason, she assured that her area “allocates a large part of its budget to promote active tourism and promote activities of this type.”
The director of the race, Fernando Ordóñez, valued “the work of the more than 700 people in the organization who have been collaborating for months so that the competition goes ahead” and insisted that “the Tenerife Bluetrail is a race for everyone and the incorporation of the new modalities and categories only make it clear”.
THE TENERIFE BLUETRAIL IN DATA
Of the more than 2,000 registered athletes, 21% are women, four points more than in the previous edition, a percentage that rises to 23% in the case of modalities such as Media or Vertical. Regarding the age group, 60% of the runners in this edition of the race are over 40 years of age.
The Tenerife Bluetrail 2023 offers ten modalities: the Ultra, 102 kilometers long; the Trail, with a distance of 73 kilometers, which also has a relay modality; Marathon, 44; Medium, which covers a distance of 24 kilometers; the Bluetrail Challenge for people with disabilities, which includes three distances of 7.2 kilometers, 5 kilometers and 700 meters; the family race, 5.3 kilometers long; the test for children under seven years of age, of 500 meters, and the jöilettes, of 5.3 kilometers, in addition to the night Vertical race.
The race also has the endorsement of Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc (UTMB), the most prestigious test in the world of the specialty, for five of its modalities depending on their distance and elevation.
Thus, the Ultra and Trail modalities (104 and 73 kilometres, respectively) of the Tenerife event will be included in the 100 kilometer category, while the marathon (44 kilometres) and the second runner of the Trail Relay (48 kilometres) will obtain a validation of 50 kilometers, which will be 20 kilometers in the case of the Media (24 kilometers) and the first athlete of the Trail Relay (25 kilometers). After finishing the test, the runners will receive a UTMB performance index in the category of the corresponding distance.
More than 700 people are involved in the organization and security of the event, which has 13 refreshment points for athletes scattered along the routes of each of the modalities. They will dispense 13,000 liters of water, 2,200 isotonic drinks and another 1,800 liters of soft drinks. They will also consume 3,105 kilos of fruit, 250 of nuts and 120 kilos of gumdrops, among other foods.
The organization also has the support of 200 volunteers who perform various tasks such as preparing the runner’s bags, delivery of bib numbers, support at the start of the ultra modality, delivery of material at the finish line and food tickets, liaison with the transport that takes runners to Santa Cruz or La Laguna and provisioning along the different routes, among others.
The Tenerife Bluetrail bets one more year on sustainability so as not to generate any type of impact on the environment through which it runs. The marking of the test, for example, is made with a totally biodegradable material, an initiative that joins others in the same line of respect for the environment such as selective recycling or the presence of environmental patrols, which will confirm that the race will not leaves a mark on any stretch of the route.
Among the athletes who will be at the starting line of the race are runners of the stature of Cristofer Clemente, twice runner-up in the trail world (2017 and 2018); champion of the Ultra Skyrunners World Series (2016) and podium in events as prestigious as the UTMB, Penyagolosa Trails or Transgrancanaria; Nina Kreisherr, last year’s winner of the Ultra category of the Tenerife Bluetrail, like the Nepalese Shange Sherpa, who won the same race in 2016 and has just been crowned champion in the Rinjani Ultra in Jakarta 2023.
There will also be the Spanish champion David Prades and the Gran Canaria Yeray Durán, three-time champion of the Ultra de la Tenerife Bluetrail but who this year will run the Trail modality; Mireia Pons, European duathlon champion and European Sky Running champion (2019), who arrives in Tenerife to run the Media.
The Endocrinology Service of the Hospiten Group will carry out a post-hoc study on the body composition and health of ten Tenerife Bluetrail volunteer runners through a bioimpedance test, which allows measuring the percentage of muscle, bone and fat to determine sports performance. in training and competitions.
Televisión Canaria will broadcast the test on Saturday, June 10 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The race can also be followed live on the Internet (streaming) through the official website of the event.
