All news: 24 March 2011
Sumo wrestler Kelly Gneiting finishes LA marathon and plan to climb Everest
Everest.
Gneiting, shown during a 2004 competition, beat his previous time by two hours A 400lb American sumo wrestler hopes to become certified as the heaviest man to finish a marathon after competing the Los Angeles race in nearly 10 hours. ...
Gneiting, shown during a 2004 competition, beat his previous time by two hours
A 400lb American sumo wrestler hopes to become certified as the heaviest man to finish a marathon after competing the Los Angeles race in nearly 10 hours.
Kelly Gneiting, who was the last of 11,891 men to cross the Los Angeles marathon finish line on Sunday, described the race as "pure hell".
Gneiting walked the last 18 miles, suffering through painful blisters, but beat his 2008 time by two hours.
He has won three US sumo titles beginning in 2005.
"I did it, but it was hell," Gneiting, 40, was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times. "Pure hell."
Gneiting of Arizona weighed in after the race at 396lb (179.6 kilos) - four less than when he started, local television reported.
By the time Gneiting finished the first half, the city had begun reopening streets along the route and he completed the race on the pavement, NBC television reported.
Gneiting hopes to have his time - nine hours and 48 minutes - certified by the Guinness Book of World Records.
Barneo 2011 press conference
North Pole.
On 21 March, a press conference was held to present the high-latitude Arctic expedition Barneo 2011; the two venues, in Moscow and St. Petersburg, were linked by a multimedia “video bridge”. This year Barneo 2011 is sponsored by ...
On 21 March, a press conference was held to present the high-latitude Arctic expedition Barneo 2011; the two venues, in Moscow and St. Petersburg, were linked by a multimedia “video bridge”.
This year Barneo 2011 is sponsored by the Russian Geographical Society. Since 2002, the Barneo ice camp ensures Russian presence in the North Pole region. The base is maintained by Polius Expeditionary Centre of the Russian Association of Polar Explorers.
The press conference participants in Moscow included Artur Chilingarov, Russian President’s special representative for international cooperation in the Arctic and Antarctica and the First Vice-President of the Russian Geographical Society; Alexander Orlov, Head of Barneo 2011 expedition and Vice-President of the Russian Association of Polar Explorers; and Dmitri Shparo, leader of “Skiing to the North Pole!” youth expedition.
In St. Petersburg the press conference was attended by Victor Boyarsky, Director of the Arctic and Antarctic Museum; Vladimir Strugatsky, Vice-President of the Russian Association of Polar Explorers; and Viacheslav Makeyev, Head of Nature Management Department at the State Polar Academy.
Currently the expedition is getting ready for the logistics stage. Building on the Soviet polar explorers’ experience and using their own innovative approaches and designs, Polius Expeditionary Centre plans to set up the Barneo ice camp in the early April. Barneo base will work for a month, performing various operations. In 2011 the camp expects to receive more than 300 tourists who’ll have a chance to reach the North Pole.
Two research teams will be working at the station. Members of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute will work according to their research programmes on a drifting ice floe. The PanArctic Ice Camp Expedition (PAICEX) of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Science will carry on for the fifth year running. And for the fourth year in a row, youth skiing expedition will go to the North Pole, led by Matvey Shparo and Boris Smolin.
http://int.rgo.ru/news/barneo-2011-press-conference/
Photographs by Yaroslav Nikitin and Darya Shlykova
