The Coastal Challenge
Day 3 At The Coastal Challenge
Press Release / 15.02.2018
The Coastal Challenge reached its third phase today, a path that led to competitors 39Km from the town of Dominical to Marino Ballena National Park, south of the town of Uvita.
The journey began with a 10km technical section of rockin the Baru River, followed by a river crossing in the breathtaking waterfalls of Nauyaca, then continued with a climb of 15km to almost 1000 meters above sea level for the second time. From here a steep decline of 11km led back to sea level where competitors ran along the coast in the Ballena Marine Park to close with a third mountain stage.
The day reached 38C and the sun stopped shining over competitors. But despite the temperature, sun and difficult terrain, competitors ended the day with a big smile and enjoyed the beauty of the flora, fauna and culture of a warm country and "pura vida"!
Men’s Race
Tom Evans (Hoka One One), Hayden Hawks (Hoka One One) and Timothy Olson (The North Face) closed today in their respective positions.
In the general table Evans and Hayden split the second run respectively, followed by Tim Olson just seven minutes back. Tico Jorge Paniagua finished today in fourth place, followed by Erick Agüero (Compressport) also of Costa Rica in fifth, a further seven minutes behind Paniagua.
American Mike Guardian (Hi One One), who had great expectations fell to ninth position 55 minutes behind first place. Mike was winner of TCC in 2014, breaking several records stage, this year luck was not on his side. In the first stage, only 2km to finish the stage, Guardian turned his ankle, which has influenced his performance in the last two stages.
Women’s Race
Debats Ragna's leadership is undisputed, with an accumulated time which is now more than an hour ahead. The odds of gaining the title TCC2018 are very high. She is currently in sixth place in the truly impressive mixed overall standings, considering the calibre of runners this year.
She is followed by the Portuguese Ester Alves (Salmon), who won the title in 2016, but the likelihood of achieving the feat this year recedes after each stage as Debats accelerates her pace.
Mirta Realpe is in third place behind Alves 20 minutes, followed by the US runner Suzanna Guadarrama only six minutes back and fighting for a top three position in the race.
The fourth stage has a total of 37.1Km and an impressive rise of 2500m. The fourth stage ends in the community of Palmar Norte.
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