The mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, and the adapted athlete Alejandro Navarro, today presented the ‘III Challenge: Get on the Move with Alejandro’, which will be held on October 24 in collaboration with the Estepona City Council.
On this occasion, Alejandro Navarro, who suffers from a grade 5 cervical injury, will make a kayak trip of more than 20 kilometers, specifically, those that are distant from Puerto Banús to the Marina of Estepona.
The first mayor has expressed his admiration for this athlete and has valued the great effort he makes in each of the challenges imposed in different sports disciplines. In that sense, he recalled that, previously, Alejandro has carried out the Camino de Santiago and a climb to Peñas Blancas with your adapted bicycle.
In addition, he has highlighted Alejandro’s spirit of improvement that has led him to achieve important successes in adapted cycling, such as being Champion of Spain in two tests in the 2017 season, and first in the Spanish Cup six times, two in 2016 and four in 2017, the latter being worth him to be runner-up of Spain Absolute.
The new challenge also has a solidarity character, since funds will be raised to the non-profit association Alejandro Navarro. Those who so wish may enter their donations into the BBVA ES account 74 0182 6727 10002 01593701.
For his part, Alejandro Navarro has recognized that this new challenge entails a lot of difficulty for him due to the instability of the marine environment in which he develops, due to his mobility limitation and his hypothermic problems. For all these reasons, the athlete will be assisted at all times by a safety boat and a support boat, as well as a human team made up of their physiotherapist, their trainer, a doctor from the Toledo National Paraplegic Hospital and two members of CD Eskape , who have experience in handling kayak or canoe rowing boats. The organization also has an evacuation plan in place.
Likewise, the boat that Alejandro will occupy, a Kayak Alboran FX, has been adapted so that it can be handled by the athlete. In this way, the hull angles have been designed flatter than other kayaks to maximize stability, implemented with two lateral stabilizers, in addition to the appropriate adaptations to be able to propel it and move it forward with two arms. Rudder system is easily elbow or head actuated to maximize turning radius.
Although the date of celebration has been scheduled for October 24, this challenge will be subject to the weather conditions of that day. The departure will be at 08.00 hours from Puerto Banús and the arrival has been announced between 12.30 and 14.00.