Huairasinchi - The 2014 Adventure Racing World Championships

Altitude Worries

Anne-Marie Dunhill / 07.11.2014

Team number 47 from the Czech Republic, Salomon/Suunto-Nutrend-Sevenpoint2.com is composed of  the following team members: Roman Sinkovsky, Radka Brozkova, Marek Navratil and Pavel Stryncl. European adventure racers will know Marek from his creation of and involvement in the Adventure Racing European Series (ARES).

The team is captained by Roman Sinkovsky and SleepMonsters chatted with Radka Brozkova as they were completing the gear checks this afternoon. Radka said that she has been adventure racing since 2010, coming from a background in orienteering. She added that she changed to adventure racing because she enjoys the team spirit element of the competion as well as the variety of different disciplines.

She raced with the team at last years AR World Champs in Costa Rica and was frustrated that the team had had to withdraw so is looking forward to racing in a World Champs race again this year and « hopes that it will be better this time for the team ».

Smiling sheepishly Radka also said that she is worried about racing in high altitudes. She said that she had been up to 5,000m (16,404 feet) in the Himalaya with no problems but here it has been different for her. Two days ago she slept with her team at 4,200m (13,799ft) to acclimatize and she experienced stomach problems and headaches.

Teams have invariably mentioned the altitude as one of their primary concerns but looking further along the course route, there is also the Amazon forest to come, with its high temperatures and intense humidity. This will be a non-negligible factor for all teams aiming to finish the full course here at Huairasinchi, the Adventure Racing World Championships. 

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