By David Gold

Javier Gomez_wins_European_Championships_Eilat_April_21_2012_2July 1 - Javier Gomez leads the Spanish contingent of triathletes who will compete at London 2012 next month.

The 2008 and 2010 world champion (pictured top) is hotly tipped as one of the favourites for a London 2012 medal, and will hope to challenge British world champion Alistair Brownlee and his brother Jonathan.

Gomez won the European Championships in Eilat, Israel, in April, his only International Triathlon Union (ITU) appearance of the season.

Having finished fourth in Beijing four years ago, despite being the favourite for gold, he will be fired up to go at least one better in London on August 7.

Joining the 29-year-old will be Olympic debutant Mario Mola, who has achieved a string of impressive results this year, including a fourth at the Mooloolaba World Cup.

However, Ivan Rana, a three-times Olympian, missed out to Jose Miguel Perez, another first-time Olympic contender, for the final men's position.

That was due to Rana's lowly 44th-place finish at the Madrid leg of the ITU World Series compared to Perez's 26th.

Ainhoa Murua_coming_out_of_water
Ainhoa Murua (pictured above, in red) will lead the women's team for the event on August 4 after an impressive 2012 so far.

She finished in the top 10 in ITU World Series races in Sydney and Madrid, but her best performance of the season came in Eilat where she claimed silver after narrowly missing out to Swiss star Nicola Spirig for gold.

Murua will take part in her third Olympic Games and will be keen to improve on 24th and 28th place finishes in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, respectively.

Marina Damlaimcourt and Zurine Rodriguez will both be participating in their first Olympics after claiming World Cup podium finishes within the last year.

The presentation of the team was made at the Spanish Olympic Committee headquarters in Madrid and attended by the Spanish International Triathlon Union President, Marisol Casado.

Alejandro Blanco, the President of the Spanish Olympic Committee, and Spanish Triathlon Federation counterpart José Hidalgo were also present along with technical director Juan Rodríguez Biehn.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
April 2012: Hat-trick heaven for Gomez and Spirig in triathlon's Euro Championships
April 2011: Gomez wins opening ITU World Championship series as rain plays havoc
January 2011: Zoot suits for triathlon world champ Gómez
July 2010: Brownlee hits wall as Gomez wins in Hyde Park
July 2010: Spaniard sounds warning to Brownlee with brilliant victory in Hamburg