It feels like we were just writing about the SUP Spring Race and we are already into the next big race of the season. This time the it was the Battle for Hercules in Andalusia. It was once again Matieu from TotalSUP who had the community informed on what was going on the race course. As of right now we lack the complete results from 12K Longdistance SUP Race on Saturday, but there are defiantly some surprises already. Starting with women. The biggest surprise for us here at the Stand Up Magazin was that the Queen of Longdistance SUP Racing, Esperanza Barreras, was once again not present. We hope there is no underlying reason for her not to show up on some of these races as the season kicks off strong.
Second surprise was that Duna Grodillo who was the only one who could defeat Espe in 2023 did not book the victory. Instead it was Alba Frey who beat Duna by 21 seconds. Duna was a strong competitor in 2023 and made a big mark at the European Champs with a victory and one the only racer who would beat Esperanza that year. As it looks like Alba Frey is ready for a big SUP Race season 2024.
Third surprise was to see Sonia Caimar on the podium with 41 seconds ahead of Laura Quetglas. Sonia was a bit of a dark horse for this race as her race history from the past years did not imply she be capable of such a great result.
Fourth surprise was Taryn King from South Africa. Taryn is a long time racer and mostly shows up with Team South Africa. We rarely see her racing in Europa, let alone a race like this. Therefor is was great to see that she made the trip to Spain. Maybe she is planning to spend the SUP Summer in Europe and do more races this year.
These are the top 7 Women results:
| Rank | Name | Time |
| 1 | Alba Frey | 1:19:53 |
| 2 | Duna Gordillo | 1:20:14 |
| 3 | Sonia Caimari | 1:23:50 |
| 4 | Laura Quetglas | 1:24:31 |
| 5 | Tarryn King | 1:24:53 |
| 6 7 | Alexa Soto Laura Godian | 1:25:07 1:28:41 |
| 8 9 10 | Holly Pye Amelia Moral Marina Moya | 1:28:47 1:29:10 1:36:15 |
On the mens’ side we once had Donato Freens heading from Italy straight to Spain for his next big race of the season. This time he did not become second behind Rai Taguchi, who we actually expected to see there, but Aaron Sancez. The two were only 5 seconds apart so we can only imagine what a battle this must have been. In third was just like in Italy Antonio Morillo this time he was 24 seconds behind Donato instead of two when the both sprinted up the beach beach last week. The 5th place must have been a bit disappointing for Christian Andersen who fell behind quite a bit. From what we learned he got hurt at the start and such incidents can ruin your entire race for sure, so on that note, his 5th place might not be that bad after all.
| Rank | Name | Time |
| 1 | Aaron Sanchez | 1:10:31 |
| 2 | Donato Freens | 1:10:36 |
| 3 | Antonio Morillo | 1:11:07 |
| 4 | Fernando Perez | 1:11:15 |
| 5 | Blue Ewer | 1:12:13 |
| 6 | Christian Andersen | 1:12:14 |
| 7 | Tom Grosup | 1:16:24 |
| 8 | Ivan Puente | 1:16:26 |
| 9 | Marc Simoncelli | 1:16:27 |
| 10 | Augusto Villegas | 1:17:04 |
Looking at the content that was posted on this event, it looked like it was great event. The race was set as a buoy course and the we can only imagine how hot it must have been in these rather calm conditions. We also appreciate the fact that there was price money, going home with a EUR 1500.- pay day for the winners is not bad.
Taking a bigger picture approach looking at the results it appears that many names were absent… surprisingly absent. If we are looking at the start of a great SUP Summer Race Season we are wondering where all the names are. We certainly missed many of them and we are wondering if they might be just waiting for the start of the EURO TOUR? The Spring Race in Italy had a far bigger turn out. The next big race on the books is the Punta Ala SUP Race by the EURO TOUR and the Carolina Cup, while the latter will most likely will have a low turn out on big SUP names.
We are looking forward to see who is showing up at what race in the coming months.