The international sports event Ironman 70.3 Panama 2024, which will take place on February 25 of this year on the Amador road, will generate an estimated income between US$3 and US$4 million to the Panamanian economy, as reported by Rina Aguirre, coordinator of the event.

For the coordinator of the event, this event promotes the country at the tourist level as a sports destination, and that part of the tour and the award ceremony will take place in the reversed areas, showing athletes, tourists and the world, the exclusive views of the banks of the Panama Canal.

“We are going to have approximately 1,300 athletes, of which 85%, that is, about 1,000 will be from abroad, which means that there will be a large movement of people who are going to visit us for that date, that makes us very happy to be able to bring that movement of tourists to the country,” Aguirre said.

Aguirre explained that for each athlete there are approximately 2.5 companions, that means that of the 1,300 athletes and approximately 3,000 additional people, they will be there for those days, with an average of at least 4 days of stay.

He also indicated that the Iroman 70.3 of Panama is the only event of this Central American franchise, and basically in Colombia, being such a large country, they also only have one event, which makes Panama with all its facilities to reach very attractive to be able to come all that number of athletes and foreigners to come.

He stressed that this generates a movement of hotels, food, domestic tourism because many of them finish their careers on Sunday, and then dedicate themselves to visiting different places in the country.

“We have had information from athletes who have told us that many go for example to San Blas, take advantage of the fact that it is quite close, others go to Chiriquí to know Boquete, so the truth is that if we have a very good movement for what sports tourism is, it is very important and I think that if we have to give it the relevance it has because it generates a very interesting movement within the country’s economy for those dates,” said Aguirre.

Also, the coordinator of Iroman 70.3 Panama mentioned that the event takes place in two stages, the first is an Expo that takes place on Friday, February 23 and Saturday, February 24, at the Hotel Riu which is open to everyone, where all the brands that sponsors have their products with special promotions. And on Sunday, February 25, from 6:00 in the morning, the competition begins, which is quite extensive, since it ends at 3:00 in the afternoon, and is also open to the public.

Participating in an Iroman 70.3, medium-distance triathlon (70.3 miles- 113km) requires a lot of dedication and effort, since there are three disciplines that are carried out on the same day: 1.9 kilometers of swimming, 90 kms of cycling and 21 kms of pedestrian race; so high physical preparation is required.