The Olympian- from Fuengirola herself- has confirmed her presence in the event, which will be held on August 31, starting from the ‘T’ breakwater. The competition is part of the stage circuit of the IX Spanish Cup of the Royal Spanish Swimming Federation Open Water Tour 2024.
Fuengirola City Council has announced it will host the I ‘María de Valdés’ Swimming competition. The Councilor for Sports, Julio Rodríguez, the president of the Fuengirola Swimming Club, Manuel Pertíñez, and the Fuengirola Olympic athlete herself were present at the announcement.
“Fuengirola is truly proud that María de Valdés always carries the name of our town wherever she goes. Nothing less than a Fuengirola woman who will be present at the next Olympic Games. Therefore, the best way to recognize her efforts and to express how happy we are to have such an illustrious neighbor, such as María, is to create this competition with her name in her municipality,” explained the mayor.
Three events of different levels make up this new event, they are: two of 300 and 800 metres, and the race (valid for the Spanish Cup) off 3,500 metres.
They will all depart from Playa de San Francisco, popularly known as the ‘T’. The first will be the long distance one starting at 8:30 am. You will leave towards Torreblanca, up to the height of Cerro del Toro, to return to the starting point. This is part of the circuit of stages of the IX Spanish Cup of the Royal Spanish Swimming Federation Open Water Tour 2024.
For its part, between 10:00 and 11:00, the most accessible tests for the rest of the swimmers will begin. In this sense, the forecast managed by the organization, which is run by the Fuengirola Swimming Club, is that half a thousand participants will sign up for the three crossings after registration opens on the Spanish federation website.
“Fuengirola is well-being. An ideal city to celebrate any kind of high-level sporting event, as this Crossing will be. We are very excited about this event, which we hope will be the first of many in our annual sports calendar,” said Julio Rodríguez.
For his part, the president of the Fuengirola Swimming Club, Manuel Pertíñez, has indicated that “we have the support of the Andalucian and Spanish Federations and that offers us help and facilities to organize an event of this magnitude, because nowadays doing An event of this type is very complex for many reasons, since there are many entities involved, such as Coasts, Beaches, Civil Guard, City Council, Club… We have a series of things around that make it quite complicated, but we did not doubt it from the beginning and In addition, we take the opportunity to give the test the name of the most important swimmer in our city, María de Valdés.”
María de Valdés herself has shown her “joy” that an event of these characteristics is being held in her city and she hopes to be able to celebrate it with all her neighbours “with good results at the Paris Olympic Games.”
