Moroccan wins 14th Marathon Des Sables
Morocco, Sports, 4/12/1999

The Moroccan Lahcen Ahansal won the 14th edition of "Le Marathon des Sables" that wound up Sunday after a 220-km long race where 580 racers from several countries have participated.

Ahansal, a native of the Moroccan southern city of Zagora, covered the week-long footrace six phases in 17:14:61, ahead in the final ranking of two Italians, Fabrizio Bernabei and Marco Olmo.

This is the second time that Lahcen Ahansal wins the marathon. Last year's edition was won by his brother, Mohamed, who did not participate in this 14th edition.

580 Athletes, marchers, racers, youth and elderly, aged between 17 and 76 and including 80 women, participated in this physical and psychological endurance test.

Athletes, marchers, racers, youth and elderly, men and women will participate in this physical and psychological endurance test and will live through an unparalleled adventure that offers fabulous landscapes and provides opportunity to discover the splendor and magic of the desert.

This week-long footrace across 220 km grueling desert terrain in southern Morocco is a test of courage, determination and enthusiasm. The participants, carrying all their food, clothes and sleeping gear on their backs, will only receive a nine-liter ration of water each day, and spend the nights on the hard desert ground under an open-sided Berber tent.

The participants in the marathon des sables do not seek to shatter records, but to reach the finish line. They walk or run to test their own capacity, challenge the desert and plunge in exoticism.

Besides competitors from a dozen European countries, twenty Moroccans participated in the marathon, including Brahim el Joual, a butcher from Fez, who participated in all the editions of the marathon since it was first launched in 1986.

Previous Stories:
  Le Marathon des Sables, an attempt to conquer the desert   (3/30/1999)
  Morocco's Khannouchi: big name in Chicago Marathon   (10/10/1998)

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