Watch as waiting staff race around iconic Costa del Sol landmark to win big cash prizes

Forty waiting staff from the hospitality industry in Nerja on the eastern Costa del Sol participated in the second waiters' race, on Wednesday 9 October in the area around the Balcón de Europa, as part of the town's October fair.

Numerous onlookers, many of them foreign tourists, lined the streets to watch the peculiar race, in which the winner was not the one who reached the finish line first, but the one who did so in the shortest time but with the maximum amount of water still in the glasses the waiting staff are required to carry on a tray.

Six groups of six waiters and waitresses and a last one of four set off from the starting point on the Balcón de Europa and had to complete the 500-metre course in a maximum of four minutes and 20 seconds. The winner was Francisco Ruiz from the Playasol restaurant in Burriana, with a time of four minutes and six seconds and 1,931 grams of weight of the containers.

In second place was Miguel Ángel Cano from Cafetería Plaza; third was Daniel Rodríguez from the restaurant Paco El Churretero; fourth was Diego Jorge Aciar from Cafetería Itálica; fifth was Juan Linares from Cafetería Plaza who was the winner in 2023; sixth was Miguel Jesús González, from Hotel Iberostar de Torrox-Costa; seventh was Miguel Martín, also from Playasol, and eighth was Jorge Urbano, from Patanegra 57.

One thousand euros in cash prizes were handed out as well as bottles of wine and spirits, donated by sponsors. The winners were “very pleased” with the result and highlighted the difficulty of the race, as this year the route was slightly longer than last year.