Indonesian Digital News Archive

Looking for a little inspiration to get you going this morning? Then look no further than the commercial for the Paralympics that you'll find below. The games are going on right now in London and will continue through Sept. 9. These athletes may not get the attention of those in the Olympic Games, but they are just as amazing in every way.

Just days before the 2012 London Olympic Games get under way, Nike has released this commercial. Yes, it may be an advertisement, but the message is a good one. There are great athletes everywhere and you don't have to be headed to the Olympics to find your greatness. Oh, and London may be closer than you think!

 Excellent video.

While we're on the topic of long distance cycling events today, remember back in February when I told you about the World Cycling Race? That event featured nine riders who set out from London on a race around the world that would cover a minimum of 18,000 miles (28,968km) and would hopefully return to them to the U.K. in time for the start of the Olympic Games. Due to attrition, five of the riders withdrew from the event while the others have continued on, with one of those riders already finishing his circumnavigation, arriving home in record time.

Last week, British rider Mike Hall completed the race by finishing his round-the-world ride in just 91 days, 18 hours. In doing so, he shaved nearly 15 full days off the previous record, which as 106 days, 10 hours and was set by Alan Bate back in 2010. Hall's route took him across 20 countries on four continents and he went the entire distance completely unsupported, carrying just 35 pounds of gear along the way.

In order to finish this ride in such a relatively short time Mike had to average more than 200 miles per day, every day, for three months. That's an incredible pace for any rider to maintain, especially taking into consideration the varying road conditions, unpredictable weather and unexpected mishaps that can occur along the way.

The three remaining riders are continuing their push towards the finish line with Richard Dunnett currently in Turkey, Simon Hutchinson in New Mexico and Sean Conway in India. A two-person team consisting of Kristina Stoney and Nic Arney are still riding as well, and the pair are currently in Italy.

The rules of the race allow the riders to travel either east to west or west to east o their route, which helps to explain why the riders are in such varying locations. They now have just 44 days to reach London before the start of the games, and barring any unforeseen problems, it appears that they should all make it.

The Olympic Atlantic Row (OAR) project was scheduled to get underway this weekend, but the departure date is a bit up in the air at the moment thanks to dodgy weather. As you may recall from a previous post in March, OAR will send ocean rowers Roz Savage and Andrew Morris on a 60 day, 2587 mile (4163km) odyssey across the North Atlantic and is scheduled to culminate in London in time for the start of the Summer Olympic Games.

Roz and Andrew are currently in Newfoundland preparing for the start of their journey and keeping a close eye on the weather. It currently appears unlikely that they'll be able to start this weekend but they are hopeful for a departure sometime early next week. When they do set out they'll be in the newly overhauled boat the Bojangles, which was previously used on a 4350 mile (7000km) Pacific Ocean crossing.

Neither Roz nor Andrew are strangers to ocean rowing. Andrew rowed across the Atlantic with his friend Mick Dawson a few years back and readers of this blog are well aware of Roz's resume, which includes solo crossings of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. They'll both need to draw on that extensive experience in the North Atlantic as it will present some unique challenges of its own, not the least of which is the unpredictable, and sometimes ferocious, weather.

I'll keep an eye on the team's progress. Hopefully they'll be able to launch soon and start their voyage to London. Good luck to both Andrew and Roz. Enjoy the journey!