Today Marcel Zamora from Spain, and Sofie Goos from Belgium, won the inaugural Challenge Costa de Barcelona Maresme. A dominant performance saw Zamora smash the opposition on the run finishing with a time of 8:15:37. Sofie Goos also produced a strong run and finished in a time of 9:08:1. The costal course saw the athletes compete over the Ironman distance of a 3.8k swim, 180k bike and a 42.2k run. The swim took place in Calella, the bike, which was two and half loops, went along the fast and closed road from Masnou to Calella and the run took place between Calella and Santa Susanna.

Zamora finished the swim among the top contenders and took the lead during the bike entering transition in the lead. During the marathon he built on his lead to win his third Ironman distance event of the season having already won Nice, Embrunman and now Challenge Costa Barcelona Maresme. Mikka Luoto from Finland finished in second place in a time of 8:22:56 and the German athlete, Bernd Eichhorn, rounded off the podium in a time of 8:26:03.

Similar to in the men's race the Belgian athlete, Sofie Goos, broke away on the bike and extended her lead on the run. Katja Konschak had a strong run making up several places to finish in second, in a time of 09:23:08. Hillary Biscay (USA) finished third (9:32.47).

Race director Jordi Gonzalez said the race, from an organizational point of view, was a great success even though the competitors had to battle with high temperatures and humidity.

Felix Walchshöfer, CEO of the Challenge Family, thanked the support of the local people and the general public for supporting the event, "today we witnessed the first of many Challenge Costa de Barcelona Maresme. The location for the event is perfect and of course we are lucky to have great weather as well - all that on top of great support from the local people". 

Josep Jo, President of the Maresme Council and Josep María Juhé, Major of Calella, have supported the Challenge Costa de Barcelona Maresme and commented on the fact that they were delighted with the event, “it is a great event to showcase Maresme as an all-year-round destination for sports training and competition”.