Sete Benavides

Alfonso Benavides López de Ayala (born 9 March 1991), known as Sete Benavides, is a Spanish sprint canoeist who twice represented Spain at the Olympics and has won medals at Olympic, world and European levels.

Sete Benavides

Benavides in 2013
Personal information
Born	(1991-03-09) 9 March 1991 (age 34) Pollença, Spain
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	84 kg (185 lb)
Sport
Country	Spain
Sport	Sprint canoe
Event(s)	C–1 200 m ,C-2 500 m
Club	Club Nautico de Pollenca
Medal record Men's sprint canoe Representing  Spain Olympic Games 2012 London C-1 200 m World Championships 2011 Szeged C-1 200 m 2013 Duisburg C-1 200 m 2019 Szeged C-2 500 m European Games 2019 Minsk C-1 200 m European Championships 2011 Belgrade C-1 200 m 2012 Zagreb C-1 200 m 2014 Brandenburg C-1 200 m 2022 Munich C-2 200 m 2015 Račice C-1 200 m

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Benavides and the second or maternal family name is López de Ayala.

Early life

Benavides was born on 9 March 1991 in Pollença, Mallorca, Spain.^[1]

Career

Benavides won his first medals in 2011. He took bronze in the C-1 200 m at the 2011 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Szeged, Hungary and silver in the same category at the 2011 Canoe Sprint European Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.^[2][3]

Benavides was selected to represent Spain at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, United Kingdom. He competed in the Men's C-1 200 metres.^[4] He set the fastest time in round one as he advanced from his heat. He finished second in his semi-final as he advanced to the final. Initially, he was ranked fourth in the final in a time of 43.038 seconds. However, in 2019, he was awarded the bronze medal after Jevgenijus Šuklinas of Lithuania was stripped of the medal for a doping violation.^[5]

A year later, he won bronze in the C-1 200 m at the 2013 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Duisburg, Germany.^[6]

He was named the Spanish Canoeing Federation's male athlete of the year in 2014.^[7]

Benavides was again selected to represent Spain at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He competed in the Men's C-1 200 metres.^[1] He won his heat to progress through round one. In the semi-finals, he set the fastest time as he advanced to the final. He finished again finished fourth in the final 0.021 seconds away from winning a medal.^[8]

In 2019, he won bronze in the men's C-2 500 m at the World Championships, with Antoni Segura.^[9]