JEDDAH, 24 February 2006 — For the first time, a Saudi team will participate in ‘Red Bull Snow to Sea’ relay race being held in Lebanon next month.
The Saudi team includes four athletes racing in four categories — Ibrahim Khaloufah (running), Saudi champion in 5,000 m and 1,500 m youth races, and Abdul Aziz Al-Shahrani (cycling), Arab champion in Egypt 2003 and two times Gulf champion in Bahrain 2001 and in Saudi Arabia 2002. The other two are Mohammed Al-Ghamdi (kayaking) and Samer Faiyed (cross-country skiing) who are both debutants at the international competition.
“For the 4th consecutive year, the Red Bull Snow to Sea relay race that became a major annual sports event will animate the Lebanese mountains, coastline and sea on March 4,” the Red Bull spokesman told Arab News yesterday.
This year’s endurance and adventure race is held under the patronage of the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism given its tourist value. “With the increase in the Arab and foreign participation, the relay race has gone beyond being a simple sports event.
It sheds lights on Lebanon’s tourist importance in the Middle East, paying tribute to the richness of its nature where the mountains touch the coastline, a valuable characteristic that enables the organization of a race that starts on the snow and ends in the sea,” he added.
This year’s race covers a longer distance stretching over 60 km. The starting signal will be given in the snowy mountain of Aloud and the race will finish at the coast, in Chekka. The fourth edition will be harder than any other since the tracks were studied and selected so as to test all the muscles and sinew of the strongest contestants.
“The contestants are selected among several teams, based on the standards and requirements of the race that became longer with modified tracks so as to make it more exciting and more demanding,” he said, adding that Red Bull will give the winners prizes in terms of sport equipments in order to encourage them to participate in the endurance and adventure sports.
Red Bull laid the foundation for this event in 2003 with the participation of 15 teams. The 2003 race was marked by the supremacy of the VO2Max team that succeeded in keeping its title for the consecutive year, winning over 27 teams of Lebanese, French, Belgian, Canadian and American athletes.
The second edition included 16 Lebanese and overseas women who participated in the various stages of the race.
The third edition of this adventure race included 35 teams, among which were four Arab teams from Kuwait, Jordan, the UAE and Oman and one a woman’s team.
The organizing committee of relay race has announced the adoption of the electronic timing system that was used for the first time last year. It works through a chip held by the contestant in his hand that he inserts after finishing his stage in a small device that immediately calculates his time with infinite accuracy, so that there is no room for any error due to the similarity in the timings.
The stages of the competition being held this year under the patronage of the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism are: Stage 1 — cross-country skiing (6 km), which starts at an altitude of 1,760 m in Laqlouq going up to an altitude of 2,060 m and ends in Balaa; stage 2 — running (20 km), which starts at an altitude of 1,888 m in Balaa and ends in Kfour El Arba; stage 3 — cycling (30 km), which starts at an altitude of 1,042 m in Kfour El Arba and ends at the coast in Chekka; and stage 4 — kayaking in the sea (5 km), which starts at the beach in Chekka and ends at the Florida Beach resort.
