The Spanish Paralympic skier will team up with Albert Jorquera before 165 kilometers through the desert
MADRID, 17 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish Paralympic skier Pol Makuri will compete in the Oman Desert Marathon from January 19 to 23, teaming up with long-distance athlete Albert Jorquera, a challenge in which he hopes to “learn and be able to share it and motivate many people.”
Makuri and Jorquera, who leave for the Asian country this Thursday from Barcelona, will face 165 kilometers in four stages through the Oman desert in self-sufficiency, carrying everything they need: food, utensils, clothing and a sleeping bag.
Makuri, the first Spaniard with cerebral palsy in the Winter Games after his participation in Beijing 2022, can become the first person with functional diversity to complete this enormous challenge. “I hope to learn and be able to share it and motivate many people,” he says in statements provided by his sponsor KH-7.
“My great love is nature, being surrounded by great mountains,” he comments, always willing to “encourage people with and without disabilities to fight for their dreams,” adds a Makuri born in La Paz (Bolivia) and raised in Igualada. , Barcelona.
The Catalan changed his life when he met an athlete with hemiparesis who competed in a ski World Cup. “If he could, why couldn't I? At that moment I started working for 12 years until I reached the Paralympic Games,” he says.
The sport brought him together with Albert Jorquera, a journalist and ultra-distance athlete who has completed the Montblanc Ultra Trail (170 km), the Marathon des Sables and the Oman Desert Marathon itself on three occasions. “I return to Oman very motivated to team up with someone I admire and who shows us every day that there are people who, with fewer abilities, can do extraordinary things,” says Jorquera.
“We have trained like animals these months. The Oman Desert Matahon is a 165 kilometer test in four stages in the Oman desert. The first stage is a marathon, 42 kilometers. The second day is 55 km. The third, 47 km by the night. And on the fourth day we finished with 22 kilometers. All this, self-sufficient. That is, you have to carry everything you need: food, sleeping bag, clothes, everything you have to carry in the backpack while you run. That makes it much more difficult, it is an adventure that goes beyond sports,” he explains.
The red sand desert of Oman will undoubtedly be a challenge that you will have to discover day by day. “One of the biggest difficulties that we are going to encounter is seeing how Pol manages the issue of the dunes, how it goes up, how it goes down. We know that we are going to encounter difficulties and problems, but the fun is to go together to overcome them,” adds Jorquera .
Makuri explains for his part how he will try to compete to the maximum, aware of the toughness of the race. “The race is going to be very hard. It runs through terrain I have never touched before and I don't know how my body is going to function there. Discovering it is part of the magic. I will run with a shoe on my left foot and an adapted boot on the left. I used to run with two boots, but Salomon convinced me to use an unadapted shoe,” he says.
“A gaiter will be attached to the shoe and the boot, to prevent sand from entering the feet. I will use the usual boot with this adjustment. Although in the sand I twist my right foot a lot more, I am already used to this shoe and we have to take maximum care of the small details. There we will find other unknown obstacles that we will have to manage,” he concludes.