The longdistance race took place in beautiful and calm condition this last Saturday. Starting with the women it was once again Esperanza Barreras showing that she is a class on her own. Espe was leading from the start and it did not take very long until a group of four separated themselves from the rest of the pack. It was Esperanza, followed by Duna Grodillo, Mariecarmen Rivera and Anna Tschirky that controlled that race from pretty early on. This draft train of four did not change for the rest of the race. After the one hour mark we saw Espe and Duna pulling away from Maricarmen and Anna starting to create a bigger gap.
Looking at the final result we notice that there ladies arrived in groups of two at the finish line. Espe was winning with 15 seconds over Duna and then we had a gap of almost two minutes from Duna to Mariecarmen and Anna then just arriving 12 seconds behind Mariecarmen. After Anna, it took over one minute for the next athlete to arrive.
Men Longdistance
The mens’ race took place in the afternoon under a bit windier conditions than the womens race. The pack split right after the start but then all met at the first buoy. It was Rai Taguchi followed by Shuri “Shrimpy” Araki rounding the buoy first. Was this going to be a telltale sign of the rest of the race? Shrimpy is the defending champion from 2022 and with only 17 years of age already a class on its own.
Around the 25 minute mark Booty made a move and took over the lead as he took a better line towards the buoy. That was very smart paddling the the Aussie paddler. Nevertheless about 10 minutes the situation changed again as Shrimpy went into attack mode and pretty much sprinted away from the rest of the guys. Leaving Ray, Titou and the other behind, but they were not done and continued to chase down the young “Wunderkind” from Japan.
By the hour and five minute mark it the leading pack looked as follows: Shrimpy, Rai, and Aaron Sanchez with Titou, Boothy and Noic lagging behind. The race was not over but they had their work cut our for them if they wanted to beat Shrimpy. As Shrimpys’ lead kept growing by the minute. In fact by 1:11:00 his lead was already over one minute.
As the home strech was near the leaderboard looked as follows:
- Shrimpy 2. Rai 3. Noic 4. Aaron 5. Michael 6. Titou
All of them were just about 10 – 15 seconds behind each other. Then coming into the beach it was clear, Shrimpy did not only win, he smoked his competition, as he brought in his 2nd ISA Worldtitle. What a great accomplishment. (We sure hope that in the future we will see him racing more in Europe during the season.)
Then there were still the guys in the back as Titou was then on the same wave with Rai and the silver medal came down to a sprint on the beach. It was a great comeback story for Titou clawing him self from 6th place to 2nd. On the other hand we can be sure the Boothy was sure hoping for a better result than a 6h place.
