RRI Sports Club
A retrospective look at the Dakar Rally.
Florin Orban, 27.01.2021, 13:45
The Dakar Rally 2021, the first important sporting event of the year, has been held in Saudi Arabia this January. Romanias representative, Emanuel Gyenes competed in the moto section. Upon returning to Romania, he told the RRI journalist Sergiu Podina that he is satisfied with the result: ”I got a very good result, 23rd place in the general rankings, an improvement as compared with last year, when I came in 29th. I was second placed in the Malle Moto section, and also in the Marathon section, two trophies that are a bonus for me. I did not want to look at the rankings, for fear I may get injured, as it happened in 2019. I wanted to go up in the rankings then, and, two days before the end of the competition, I had to withdraw.”
The Romanian’s debut in the competition was below expectations — 36th placed in the first leg and 35th in the second. The third leg was the most difficult one, due to technical problems, and Gyenes ended in the 50th place. But the problems were far from over.
Emauel Gyenes: ”On the fourth day I had to take the start after four or five ATVs. This is a big disadvantage, because it is difficult to outrun them, they make a lot of dust and, at maximum speed, they are much slower than a motorcycle. It is easy to catch up with them, but very difficult to get ahead of them. It is dangerous to drive through dust and take the high risk of passing them by, which can get you kicked out of the competition. So I was patient, I knew that was only the fourth day, that it was a long race and, little by little, I went up again. On that day I fell on 4th place in Malle Moto and then started to go up in the rankings again.”
The eight leg was the best for Gyenes. He was 22nd placed, 30 minutes and 38 seconds after the winner of the leg, the Chilean Jose Ignacio Cornejo. Gyenes won the Malle Moto section and was the runner-up pilot in the Marathon. He maintained his position in the following legs, and got a result he was satisfied with. (Translated by EE)
