Spanish SUP Championships answers some questions

| esperanza barreras, spanish sup championships

If you were wondering where all the Spanish SUP Athletes were this past weekend, because non of them showed up at the EURO TOUR, we now have the answer. Frankly we must have lived under a rock, but this weekend there was a SUP Race called Triple S Festival in the Spanish Town of Melilla. This is not the only thing we learned after looking up the race. We also learned that Melilla is an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea.

This also answered our question on the where abouts of Esperanza Barrers. Espe has not been at at SUP race this year so far while most of her competition already got busy. This had us wondering and worried a bit what might be going on with her, so we reached out. Espe was quite amused:

“LOL worried?? The season is only starting, and it will be very long! There is time for everything.” she responded. She also assured us that she will be at all the big races this year including the EURO TOUR. When asking her about “Faaker See” her response was not conclusive but it kind of sounded like she is going there.

Instance like this just underline how fragmented the SUP Sport is and how hard it can be to follow all the event and keeping up with results. It’s not like any other sport where there is a consistent tour around the world with the top athletes. Our sport is a patch work of, races, tours and governing bodies, everybody holds a piece of it but nobody unifies the sport, but that is are just the growing pains of a young sport even we been in it for over 14 years.

Back to the event: This was the first race between Duna Gordillo and Esperanza Barreras and they crossed the finish line within 7 seconds from each other in favor or Espe. In third was Alba Frey with quite a bit of a lag. Laura Quetglas who already achieved some good results in 2024 did not race in this event.

Espe leading over Duna, the question of 2024 is: When do we see these ladies in opposite positions?

Women Podium

  1. Esperanza Barreras – 01:39:23
  2. Duna Gordillo – 01:39:30
  3. Alba Frey – 01:41:01

Men Podium

  1. Antonio Morillo Sanchez – 01:30:44
  2. Fernando Pérez Serra – 01:30:47
  3. Aaron Sanchez Quetglas – 01:30:49

As far as the men goes it looks like the battle between the top guys is set. They all arrived at the finish line within seconds.

We hope to see them all competing in many more races throughout the season.