Calpe runner is desert winner

CALPE resident Juan Pedro Garcia took second place in the recent Sahara Marathon. Juan Pedro, who belongs to the iRun Calp athletics’ club, finished in three hours, 13 minutes and two seconds. 

First place went to another Spanish runner, Vicente Grande Duque of  Bultaco Runners (Madrid).

The race is run between Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria and 500 international athletes set out from El Aaiun and finished at Smara.  The event is organised to encourage young Saharawi refugees to practise sport and raise funds for humanitarian projects.

This year money raised will be used to rebuild homes and installations at the camps which were badly affected last October during the heaviest rainfall in 40 years.

 “The last kilometres were the worst, with a lot of loose stones and dry quicksand as well as dunes.  But this is where the race really starts and you have to get your ideas straight and think coldly,” Juan Pedro said.