From Russia with love

Press Conference 02/07/2019

With already more than 30 competitors entered in the 35th edition of MARATHON DES SABLES, the Russian participation record has already been broken. The reasons of this success ? The incredible enthusiasm of Russian citizens for extreme events, for desert expanses, and for the discovery of other cultures, other ways of living.

Added to this is the victory in 2016 of the Russian racer Natalia SEDYKH, who made a strong impression, placing eleventh in the scratch with a tremendous passion, almost a rage. Once again present in 2018, she was only able to rank fourth, negligent at the beginning of the race which earned her a penalty that she tried to catch up by playing everything for the whole. Natalia will not be present in 2020 for the 35th edition, because she is currently waiting for a happy event, but she has promised to come back!

Before Natalia SEDYKH, two other Russian female athletes won the MDS: Irina PETROVNA in 1993 and Valentina LIAKHOVA in 1994 (8th and 9th MDS). In men, only one Russian athlete won the MDS, but he did it three times, in 1994, 1995 and 1996: André DERKSEN.

To mark this huge participation announced and support the development of MARATHON DES SABLES in Russia, Patrick BAUER offered himself the trip to Red Square and held on July 2nd a Press Conference and a round table. With about thirty journalists present, Patrick had to answer about sixty questions and carry out a dozen interviews in one to one. But the day was not over since a hundred potential competitors were present in the evening, also eager to know everything about the 35th MARATHON DES SABLES.

Will Russia be in the Top 5 of the most represented nations in 2020? It is very possible ... See you on the departure of the first stage on April 5, 2020 to make sure!