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Dakar rally switch to South America in 2009
The Dakar rally, which was cancelled last month due to security fears in Africa, will switch to South America in 2009. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez says hosting the race, run through Africa every year since it began in 1979, is an honor for all Argentines and also for Chile. The 2009 rally will begin and end in Buenos Aires, covering more than 5500 miles from Jan 3rd to 18th. Competitors will race through the Argentine Pampa plains, south toward Patagonia then climb back up the country traversing the Andes mountains into Chile, where they will rest one day in the seaside resort of Valparaiso. The route continues north to the Atacama desert before returning to Argentina. Event organizers say the race will retain the Dakar Rally name. Now to yachting, where the Barcelona World Race winner, 'Paprec Virbac 2,' crossed the finish line on Monday after 92 days eight hours 49 minutes and 49 seconds at sea. Frenchman Jean Pierre Dick and Ireland's Damian Foxall finished first after traveling more than 28,000 nautical miles in a race that started on November 11 2007. The event is the first two-handed non-stop race around the world and Foxall has become the first Irishman to skipper a winning round the world race. Nine boats started the race but only five are still racing, with the yacht Hugo Boss, crewed by Alex Thomson and Andrew Cape, in second place more than 400 nautical miles behind with Tenemos II a distant third behind the winners.Phillip Aiden, a successful dancer and choreographer who has performed in shows such as "Chicago", "My Fair Lady" and "Evita", hands his students a cane to get them in the mood before taking them through the steps. [Phillip Aiden, Dance Instructor]: "Basically it's an all over body exercise because you start off with a basic dance warm up and then you go into the routine and what I hope to do is over the weeks, in kind of 4 week blocks, is develop the routine further and further so you end up doing a 4 minute routine, so that hopefully you would work every muscle in the body, I would hope." The cane helps to work the upper body, chest, lower back and core, the addition of music from popular musicals makes it fun and innovative. [Phillip Aiden, Dance Instructor]: "It's different just in the fact that it's a completely different form of exercise, because dance is very very different. It's totally cardiovascular as aerobics is, but you're using different muscles. You're using different strengths, you're using hand to eye co-ordination all of that, aerobics is kind of, I guess, kind of more set, so that you kind of know the format of aerobics, with this it's not, so it's always going to be different." The moves are designed around the use of a cane and although the routines are not taken directly from the shows you certainly feel as if you're re-enacting the steps, at the same time as getting a good overall workout. Recently dance has been enjoying a revival in the UK and this could see people who wouldn't normally go to the gym give it a go. [[Phillip Aiden, Dance Instructor]: "I would hope so because at the moment there's a real kind of passion for dance due to the recent television stuff with Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing on Ice and all of that, so there a new passion for dance which is really nice, especially for men to dance, so I'd hope to attract more guys into it." The class lasts approximately 45 minutes and promises to be as challenging as any aerobics class. STORY: Marcianise is a town of 40,000 people north of Naples whose once rural landscape is now scarred by piles of garbage and bleak factories, but it has a reason to be proud: half of the boxers in the Italian team which has qualified for the Beijing Olympics were born in this troubled place, where newspapers are dominated by tales of a trash crisis and the Camorra, the local version of mafia. Kids start punching at a very early age in Marcianise. Domenico Brillantino is chief coach at the Excelsior gym. [Domenico Brillantino, Coach]: "The inhabitant of Marcianise is born with a great desire to be in punch ups. So we have a very easy task. We prepare them, we try to mould their desire to fight so it's within sporting rules. And we turn them into champions." Clemente Russo the 'Excelsior' gym's star graduate is world amateur heavyweight champion. [Clemente Russo, Olympic Boxer]: "When I see my picture on the cover of a glossy magazine I see a whole life of sacrifices that started when I was 10-years old. I started fighting when I was 14 but I was still going to school. I used to wake up at six and go running in the dark, in the cold and rain. I controlled my weight and trained constantly. In that front page you see 15 years of sacrifices but also the fact that you got somewhere." Three of the first four Italian boxers to qualify for the Beijing Games; heavyweight Russo, lightweight Domenico Valentino and flyweight Vincenzo Picardi, were born in or around Marcianise.