Cuban Leslie Amat finished tenth at Havana Triathlon

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 26 (ACN) Leslei Amat was the best for Cuba at the 8th edition of the Havana Triathlon, taking tenth place, with dominance among women for the US Gwen Jorgensen, Olympic champion in Rio de Janeiro 2016.

Starting at the Marina Hemingway and finishing at the Hotel Nacional, in Havana, Gwen won with a time of 1:59.42 hours, followed by Poland's Roksana Slupek (1:59:53) and Mexico's Ana Maria Torres (2:00:14), while the main athlete of Cuba stopped the clocks in 2:02:02.

Cuban woman jumped into the channels of the Hemingway Marina to cover the 1,500-meter swim, and came out of that initial test well placed, which allowed her to stay among the first during the 40 kilometers (km) of cycling. However, despite being one of the leaders after the last transition, her rivals managed to take advantage of her in the 10 km race.

Despite missing the podium, she and her coach Diosele Fernandez consider it a good performance.

The other Cubans competing in the elite women's race were Isabel Rodriguez (2:05:00) and Niuska Figueredo (2:07:21), who finished in 19th and 20th place, respectively.

Among the men, Irishman James Edgar (1:44:39) led, followed by US Darr Smith (1:44:45) and Polish Michal Oliwa (1:44:52), while Cuban Alejandro Rodriguez (1:52:30) finished in 20th place.

At the event, awards were given to the swimmers of the popular sprint and by age and sex categories, and Rolando Herrera Agon, technical director of the Havana Triathlon, and former Colombian Ironman record holder Carlos Arciniegas, 84 years old, were recognized for their performance.