The long-standing Volcano Triathlon at Club La Santa, Lanzarote, has been an early season warm-up for athletes for many decades now, often coming at the end of a week or two of pre-season training at the hugely popular Canary Island training venue.
It’s a race that has, on the women’s side especially, seen a long run of British success. That came to halt 12 months ago, but ‘normal service’ was resumed today, as Kate Curran ran to victory, passing the defending champion, Sara Perez Sala, in the process.
Women
12 months ago (when she finished 11th overall), Kate Curran exited the swim second, 1:45 down on the fast-swimming Perez Sala. Same positions again 12 months on, but Curran – who turned Pro in late 2022, finishing eighth in Cascais – showed her progression, reducing that deficit to just 43 seconds this time around.
As one of the strongest swim-bikers around, home athlete Perez Sala continued her defence of the Volcano title on the bike with the second fastest bike leg (1:08:28), with only another Brit, Lydia Dant, quicker on two wheels (1:08:08). Curran has been training in Lanzarote for a couple of weeks however, and has clearly upped her game on the bike too, as with a 1:09:04 split, she was very much in the mix starting the 10km run, little more than a minute down.
From there, the Brit took control and a swift 34:41 split saw her catch and pass Sara early in the run, pushing on to an impressive winning margin of three minutes. It would be silver for Sala, with Denmark’s Maja Stage just holding off Dant to complete the 1/2/3.
When you consider that Perez Sala won The Championship and Challenge Gran Canaria in 2022, and is currently the PTO’s #21 ranked athlete, that should be a huge confidence booster for Curran, that her work over the winter has been working.
Men
While Sara Perez Sala went from first to second between 2022 and 2023 edition, it was the reverse for Belgium’s Dieter Comhair, as he reached the top step of the podium.
The opening 1.5km swim saw a trio of Brits exit together; Reece Barclay, Jorge Wilkes and Jonathan Jackson. Comhair had plenty of work to do at this stage, two and a half minutes down as he reached dry land in 18th position.
The Belgian made his move on the the bike, and with one of the few sub-hour bike splits of the day, he would start the run alongside Nicola Duchi (ITA) and Pello Osoro Gutierrez (ESP), with Loughborough-based Louis Woodgate (GRE) just 30 seconds behind that trio.
Those four athletes would go on to finish in the top four positions, with Comhair producing the fastest run (31:09) to reach the line 24 seconds ahead of Italy’s Duchi, and Gutierrez taking third.
Previous Volcano Triathlon winners:
2022: Sara Perez Sala (ESP / Gregory Barnaby (ITA)
2021: Lydia Dant (GBR) / Raúl Lecuona Gil-Roldán (ESP)
2020: No race
2019: Lucy Charles (GBR) / Emilio Aguayo Muñoz (ESP)
2018: Alice Hector (GBR) / Emilio Aguayo Muñoz (ESP)
2017: Alice Hector (GBR) / Romain Guillaume (FRA)
2016: Alice Hector (GBR) / Kenneth Vandendriessche (BEL)
2015: Corinne Abraham (GBR) / Bert Jammaer (BEL)
Club La Santa Volcano Triathlon 2023
Saturday 25th February 2023
1.5km / 40km / 10km
MEN
- 1. Dieter Comhair (BEL) – 1:55:39
- 2. Nicola Duchi (ITA) – 1:56:03
- 3. Pello Osoro Gutierrez (ESP) – 1:57:02
- 4. Louis Woodgate (GRE) – 1:57:53
- 5. Jonathan Jackson (GBR) – 1:58:01
WOMEN
- 1. Kate Curran (GBR) – 2:07:38
- 2. Sara Perez Sala (ESP) – 2:10:41
- 3. Maja Stage (DEN) – 2:11:36
- 4. Lydia Dant (GBR) – 2:12:07
- 5. Kahina Mebarki (ESP) – 2:22:40
How to pace a triathlon to leave it all out there WITHOUT blowing up
