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LOCAL Tuesday 17 May 2022

Local athlete Elliott Loonstra PLY faces a new challenge in Europe

to continue within the top
10 in the world. Currently
Loonstra is 8th in the world
and 1st in the Pan Ameri-
can region. Improving his
position in the world rank-
ing will lead to direct quali-
fication for the Paris 2024
Paralympic Games.

We wish Elliott (Lefty) Loon-
OranjEstad - a new chal- do Open Championship, stra PLY and his internation-
lenge for our Paralympic which will be his first partici- al coach Luciano Mazzeo
athlete Elliott Loonstra PLY pation in Europe. the greatest success. A
who traveled to Manches- big thank you goes to the
ter, Great Britain to com- The main objective is the people of Aruba and the
pete in the prestigious 2022 acquiring of more experi- Loonstra family for their un-
European Para taekwon- ence and obtaining points conditional support.q

30th ‘ronde van aruba’ is going to start

tafette 4-person team). This year a record
amount of people have registered to run
the race individually. This is a total amount
of 20 men and women. The other partici-
pants will start between 20.00 and 00.00
hrs. on Friday evening. Each minute a new
team or duo will start.

During the Corona period the “Ronde
of Aruba” did take place in an adapted
form. This year it has been considered to
OranjEstad - On the evening of the 20th go back step by step to the ‘Ronde of Aru-
of May 2022 the 30th edition of the ‘ronde ba’ as most of the people were acquaint-
van aruba’ is going to start. ed to. Spectators are, as usual, more than
welcome along the route to encourage
The running event, organized by the Ma- and cheer on the runners. In addition, mu-
rine Barracks in Savaneta, already exists sic will be played at all eight exchange
since 1971. Two members of the Marines stations for the public and participants. q
challenged themselves once, to run the is-
land on a solo race. Since that moment this
idea has grown to an annual event. The
running course is 72 kilometers long, and
largely follows the coastline of the island
and is one of the toughest and longest run-
ning courses of the Caribbean Region. The
governor of Aruba, His Excellency Alfonso
Boekhoudt, will give the starting shot.

This year it is expected that approximately
800 participants will register at the starting
line. The 72 km long route can be run indi-
vidually, as a duo, or with a relay team (es-