Friday, 17 June 2011 10:14
Seven-day stage race awaits SA ace Cloete
Eight competitors who have placed in the top 10 of previous RacingThePlanet events will be going head-to-head in the Gobi March (China) 2011. The 250 kilometre, seven-day, six-stage event takes place from 26 June to 2 July in the Turpan Depression, the second-lowest place on earth, in China’s northwest Xinjiang region.
In the men’s division, the competitors to watch are Italian Paolo Barghini – the Sahara Race (Egypt) 2009 champion and The Last Desert (Antarctica) 2010 runner-up, Damon Goerke from Australia who placed 4th in the Atacama Crossing (Chile) 2009 and German Rafael Fuchsgruber, who achieved 3rd place in the Sahara Race (Egypt) 2010. The women’s competition will be equally hard fought with the Atacama Crossing (Chile) 2011 champion, Nahila Hernandez San Juan from Mexico, returning to defend her recent win and Australian Fleur Grose, the Atacama Crossing (Chile) 2009 woman’s champion.
Experience in 4 Deserts events is a definite asset, but more than 100 of the 152 competitors are making their RacingThePlanet debut at the Gobi March 2011. Many of the competitors are determined to make a strong first impression. Some of these competitors include Spaniard Jaume Tolosa Anglada, who has some strong finishes in multi-stage events, and South African Dirk J. Cloete, who has trained and raced with 4 Deserts 2010 champion Ryan Sandes.
Says RacingThePlanet Event Director Samantha Fanshawe: “The varied terrain of the Turpan Depression presents some unique challenges for the competitors, in addition to the grueling and changing weather conditions. Looking at the field, we’ve got a strong mix of not only veterans but winners and top finishers who have experience leading the pack. I’m also excited to see some of the strong rookies, who may be new to RacingThePlanet but bring with them plenty of endurance and rough terrain experience.”
The annual Gobi March is a self-supported race. With the exception of water and a place in a tent, competitors are required to carry all of their equipment, supplies and food for the duration of the event. Several of the competitors have a lot of experience at multi-stage endurance races, including Tan Tah Ming from Malaysia, Yoo Ji Sung (Jesse) from South Korea who has completed more RacingThePlanet events than anyone else in the world and has 1,200 kilometres of races planned for 2011 and American Dianette Wells who has also scaled the 7 Summits which includes Mount Everest. Canadian Leonard Stanmore has also completed this feat as well as having skied to the North Pole.
The team competition sees 3 contenders: Team Sandhurst, comprised of three British Army Officers for HM Forces in the United Kingdom – Andrew Speed, James Vain and Colin Moss. The all-Chinese Team Esquel comprised of Zhou Zhi Jun, Wang Hai Song, and Ahong JIan Ba Ya Ji sees the very first Uyghur competitor in any RacingThePlanet event. The third team is the Hext Boys, a team comprised of father Richard Hext and his sons James, William and Jonathan who are all supporting the Marie Curie Cancer Care.
Competitors representing 39 countries are competing in the Gobi March 2011 including Gabon, Poland, Brazil, Turkey, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Hong Kong is the most represented country, with 34 competitors resident in Hong Kong. There are a further 11 Chinese or China-based competitors - just over a third of the field will be racing on their “home” territory.
This year’s course will take the athletes through parts of the Turpan Depression, an area located about 150 kilometres southeast of Urumqi and which covers an area of 50,000 square kilometres.
In addition to passing through the Turpan Basin, competitors will pass through the ancient city of Gaochang, which dates back to the 1st Century B.C. and which was a key location on the Silk Road.
For the eighth straight year, the Gobi March will support the Esquel Y.L. Yang Education Fund which will donate books and school supplies to benefit the local communities in the area of the course. To date, 40 schools have received books and other supplies through the Gobi March.
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About the Gobi March 2011 (26 June – 2 July 2011) www.gobimarch.com
The Gobi March is one of the four races that comprise the world renowned 4 Deserts series of 250 kilometer, rough-country footraces.
The race takes place in China's ancient Gobi Desert, in the Turpan Depression, the country's lowest and hottest location.
The Turpan depression is a fault-bound trough in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. The Silk Road caravans had to cross it on their journeys between East and West, competitors will come across the traces and influence of this most mysterious of trade routes time and again during the race.
The Gobi March's challenges include the changes in temperature from the cool highlands to the heat of the desert, potential sandstorms and variety of terrain – soft sand-dunes, rocky tracks, steep hills, ridges and riverbeds with multiple water-crossings.
Competitors must plan carefully to maintain the delicate balance between physical exertion, nutrition and hydration in order to successfully complete the race.
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