Challenge Roma, British triumph with Bowden (men) and Lewis (women). Fantastic third Marta Bernardi
The second edition of Challenge Roma, the international triathlon event of the prestigious Challenge Family circuit, crowns the British Adam Bowden (time 3:22:03) and Sarah Lewis (time 3:46:48) on the throne of the Eternal City. Excellent performance for Spanish Pablo Dapena Gonzales, who finished second (time 3:24:11), and Iñaki Baldellou (time 3:24:38), third place. Among the women is second Alice Hector (time 3:51:19), and third the Italian Marta Bernardi (time 3:52:47).
“I did not expect it, it was my first time on this distance”, said Bowden “the hardest part was the bike, because the distance of swimming is not much longer than the Olympic one and running is my specialty “.
“The race course was easier and faster than I thought. I am very satisfied, Rome is fantastic and many will want to come back next year too” said Sarah Lewis.
Marta Bernardi: “A strong challenge came down from the bike and I found my rhythm, a great audience along the way, with the music, I could not get any better, I’m really very happy”. The first Italian to cross the finish line was Mauro Pera, twenty-third absolute. (time 3:39:54).
A happy Alessandra Sensini, windsurf italian gold Olympic medal at Sydney 2000, who played the swim part in a super relay with Martina Dogana and Michela Santini. “I survived my first triathlon, thanks Martina and Michela, we are a good team”.
The 2018 edition of Challenge Roma, organized by the Forhans Team under the patronage of Roma Capitale, Lazio Region, X Municipio, Italian Triathlon Federation, Lazio Regional Committee Fitri and Italian Paralympic Committee, technically turned out to be a race of high competitive profile. Five hundred members: 329 Italians and 171 foreigners from 35 countries. In addition to Italy, the most represented are Great Britain, with 32 triathletes at the start, followed by Germany with 18 and Spain with 14.
The course is very fast: 1.9 km for swimming in the waters in front of the Port, 90 km of cycling up to Castelporziano (from which started a ride along the coast) and then return to cover the half marathon distance between the Touristic Port of Rome and Lungomare Duca degli Abruzzi.