The Russian Challenge

Maria Plyashechko / 12.02.2012

This is the second time a Russian team have attempted to challenge the Patagonian Expedition Race. The first time was in 2005 when Team Russia crossed the line first as an unranked team (after a disqualification due to splitting up during a storm on the kayaking stage).

Now Maria Plyashechko, Pavel Demeshchik, Maxim Vafin and Alexander Eduardov, have formed team Red Fox- Gore-Tex, supported by one of the best Russian outdoor equipment brands Red Fox and are trying to complete one of the toughest races in the World. Main sponsors Red Fox proudly support AR in Russia running an expedition race and providing equipment to the best teams.

Team Red Fox-Gore-Tex has never raced before with this line up, but each of them is quite an experienced racer and raced with each other in different teams. They have known each other for about five years.

All the guys are probably the strongest Russian adventure racers at the moment and the only question is if they will manage to successfully complete the kayaking stages, where Russians are traditionally not strong enough.

Maria currently lives in Melbourne (Australia) and has finished over 15 expedition style events, her best achievements are winning The Czech Adventure Race and second place in Australian XPD with Ukrainian and Australian teams respectively. Other remarkable results are holding the Russian 24 hour cross-country skiing record (320 km) and junior World Champion title in archery biathlon.

Pavel is an experienced rogainer, winner of multiple rogaining cups in Russia, and a finisher of many impressive events such as the Polish Bergson Winter Challenge and the Gore-Tex Transalpine Run. Alexander and Maxim are not noticed much in the international AR sphere but have raced a lot nationally and achieved numerous podiums is CIS countries in rogaines, shorter adventure racers and skijoring events. All of the team have been on a lot of trips to remote areas in very tough weather conditions and consider this experience as very useful for Patagonian expedition race.

All the team are from different cities in Russia (plus Melbourne), so probably they're the record holder in how many emails and hours on skype they spent discussing equipment and race details. Despite this two of the team managed to misbook their connections to Punta Arenas on the wrong day, and are not sure if they will manage to arrive in time with all their luggage. Fingers crossed – we are sure they’ll make it! 

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