The IX edition of the Havana Triathlon develops today in the iconic Marina Hemingway, and this is one of its novelties, because in its previous appointments the goal was located in front of the National Hotel of Cuba.
“About 26 countries and one hundred athletes from the entire Central American area, the United States and Africa participate. Two categories are going to be made, the classification of the Junior Pan American Games in the female and male sector and the elite test that gives points for the ranking ”, Alejandro Puerto Torres, president of the Cuban Triathlon Federation explained.
In this sense, the World Triathlon as the appointment is also known, will deliver 24 tickets to the II Pan American Junior Asunción-2025 Games, 12 for women and another 12 for the boys. The particularity is that each participating nation can only be made of two quotas by sex.
Regarding the elite test, the performance of athletes will begin to score for the Central American and Caribbean Games of Santo Domingo-2026.
Both the sub.21 and elite category will prove its capacity in 750 meters of swimming, 20 kilometers of cycling and 5 kilometers of career, measures of the popular sprint of this sport according to the regulations of the International Federation of that sport, for which The Havanera appointment is governed.
Havana, a world triathlon destination
Since 2015 there is this fair in the Cuban capital. Its first edition was named after the Ibero-American Cup of Triathlon and the Pandemia of the COVID-19 prevented its realization for two years.
The decision to convert Havana into an important international headquarters for this sport was born at the initiative of the José Martí Cultural Society and the Martian Club of Huelva, Spain, in a combination with the thrust of the figure of José Carrasco and the international weight of this sport in Cuba made it possible to be completed.
According to José Hidalgo Martín, president of the Spanish Triathlon Federation, “in this sport we do not have spaces, our space is the city and Havana has so much to tell, in each corner it has a history, so it had to be here, because what what He inspires this sport is precisely to take the big cities and use them as stadiums. ”
“That we have celebrated nine editions only indicates one thing, and that is why it has been happening, there is the interest that is generating. Athletes love to come to Havana and the International Federation will support any event that athletes understand that they feel well treated, which are emblematic places, which are places where it is worth competing.
“We have nine editions because each of them has been different and has told a story and that is very important to attract iconic athletes. Havana is still at the starting point to make another takeoff and become a reference test, it is already, but I am sure that in the future it will be more ”continues Hidalgo, who is also the president of the Spanish Sports Association .
The growth of the prestige of the Havana Triathlon, which in its previous eight editions has attracted more than 4000 participants from 52 countries. Just the poster of this ninth edition collects the snapshot of the Olympic champion of Rio de Janeiro 2016, Gwen Jorgensen, who participated and won the eighth edition of the competition in Cuba in 2024.
“The Los Angeles Olympic cycle has begun and it is very paradigmatic that the first test in America will be held in Havana. It seems to me that this speaks very well that the trust of the triathletes and the International Federation has been won to be the evidence that opens the calendar, ”says Hidalgo.
Symbiosis Culture Sports
Another of the always outstanding distinctives of the Havana Triathlon is the way he has kept Cuban art as one of its awards, something that will also be present in this ninth edition.
“From the beginning the Cultural Society José Martí has been part of the Culture -port Union, where artists add their work of art and are the athletes award. In addition to the medal, an important artist is taken that makes it not a metallic prize but of a high symbolic and monetary value, it is something that has characterized the appointment and has liked many of the athletes who have participated in previous editions, ”Alejandro Puerto tells us.
José Hidalgo finds that this is not a lower aspect. “In my country for many years, culture and sports have shared the same ministry and we are not able to set up a project that one. We share ministers and stadiums, but we have nothing to do with the people of culture and sport, and I would like to look from my country what is being done here because it is really that symbiosis of how we can unite the two areas, it seems to me which is absolutely replicable, ”he says.
