Alba Frey, Sergio Cantoral, and Christian Andersen emerged as champions at the Triple S after two days of competition.
Melilla, an autonomous city in North Africa, became the hub for the Spanish SUP Championships: The Triple S Melilla. It was also sanctioned by the recently founded ESL and became the 2nd race in their newly announced SUP Tour.
Melilla welcomed top paddlers mostly from Spain. Despite the ever-changing conditions, athletes delivered a spectacular performance at Hipica Beach.
The first day was dedicated to technical races, showcasing Spanish prowess. In the women’s category, Alba Frey from the Canary Islands secured another win in technical races after The Battle for Hercules. In the men’s division, Denmark’s Christian Andersen claimed victory.
On the second day, Spanish athletes continued to shine. Frey triumphed again in the sprint races, while Sergio Cantoral took the crown in the men’s sprint.
Alba Frey strong performance
As we look at the results, the big story here might be the rise of Alba Frey. Our entire focus in the SUP Race season 2024 revolved around who would finally beat Esperanza Barreras. This weekend, it seemed like it was not her time. She came in 3rd in Tech. and in Sprint she did not enter the finals. Instead, it was Alba Frey who came out on top. After securing 4th place at the Battle for Hercules, she beat both of her strongest opponents: Duna Gordillo and Esperanza Barreras. We now look forward to the next two events, anticipating these ladies battling it out for money and glory. It will be even more exciting with Marie Carmen Rivera and Csillag Kocsis in the mix.
Women Tech. Race
| Rank | Name | Nat | Time |
| 1 | ALBA ALONSO FREY | ESP | 19:34 |
| 2 | DUNA GORDILLO RODRÍGUEZ | ESP | 19:39 |
| 3 | ESPERANZA BARRERAS SANJURJO | ESP | 19:42 |
| 4 | BIANCA TONCELLI (U18) | ESP | 20:27 |
| 5 | ELENE ETXEBERRIA ARANBURU | ESP | 20:49 |
| 6 | SONIA CAIMARI POL | ESP | 20:49 |
| 7 | AIDA NÉPOLA SOBERBIO | ESP | 20:59 |
| 8 | LAURA PARICIO GODIÁN(U18) | ESP | 21:05 |
| 9 | IZASCUN MARTIN DEL CAMPO | ESP | 22:06 |
| 10 | INÉS BLIN GOMEZ(U18) | ESP | 22:34 |
Christian Andersen defeats the Spanish Elite
Christian Andersen was showing a very strong performance in Melilla. He beat one of Spains finest, Fernando Perez by 21 seconds. On his heels was Ethan Bry almost stealing silver, but then fell 3 seconds behind. Over all a good day for all the podiums as the ESL paid out some price money.
Men Tech. Race
| Rank | Name | Nat | Time |
| 1 | CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN | DMK | 16:57 |
| 2 | FERNANDO PEREZ SERRA | ESP | 17:18 |
| 3 | ETHAN, MAËL BRY | FRA | 17:21 |
| 4 | IVAN PUENTE RODRIGUEZ | ESP | 17:27 |
| 5 | MANUEL HOYUELA ROJAS | ESP | 17:31 |
| 6 | ANTONIO MORILLO SANCHEZ | ESP | 17:44 |
| 7 | ITZEL DELGADO | PER | 17:45 |
| 8 | AARON SANCHEZ QUETGLAS | ESP | 17:50 |
| 9 | DAVID NASCIMENTO DE LEAO | BRA | 18:00 |
| 10 | LLUIS PEROTTI FERRIOL | ESP | 18:03 |
| 11 | LUDOVIC , YANN TEULADE | FRA | 18:03 |
| 12 | SERGIO CANTORAL QUIRANT | ESP | 18:15 |
Men Spint
| Rank | Name | Nat | Time |
| 1 | ALBA ALONSO FREY | ESP | 1:14 |
| 2 | ELENE ETXEBERRIA ARANBURU | ESP | 1:17 |
| 3 | DUNA GORDILLO RODRÍGUEZ | ESP | 1:19 |
| 4 | SONIA CAIMARI POL | ESP | 1:34 |
Men Sprint
| Rank | Name | Nat | Time |
| 1 | SERGIO CANTORAL QUIRANT | ESP | 1:01 |
| 2 | TOMAS LACERDA | PRT | 1:04 |
| 3 | CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN | DEN | 1:04 |
| 4 | IVAN ESTEVE ROMERO | ESP | 2:03 |
Conclusion
We are now looking forward to the next three weeks of big SUP races, it was unfortunate that the race in Melilla created a scheduling conflict with the traditional Agios Nikolaos on SUP Race. We hope for next year instead of having a series of 6 SUP races there might be 7 and if the SUP Spring Race is moving their dates up we have 8.