Egyptian triathlete Omar Nour's Atlantic Row preparations in full-swing

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  • Getting ready for ultimate test: Omar Nour.

    Dubai-based Egyptian triathlete Omar Nour has completed an epic 48-hour indoor row in preparation for his Atlantic Row challenge later this year.

    Nour, who will embark on a 5,000 kilometre row across the Atlantic Ocean with adventurer Omar Samra in December, revved up his fitness preparations with a testing workout at Warehouse Gym in Al Quoz.

    The 38-year-old began the rowing machine endurance effort last Thursday (at 14:00 on July 27) and finished up on Saturday afternoon (July 29) – completing around 315km, a distance that equates to roughly 6.3 per cent of the overall total he and his partner will have to conquer doing the real thing.

    Chalk markings were made on the gym floor surrounding Nour and his rowing machine to mimic the size of the vessel Team 02 will use in the challenge – which is approximately 7.5m long x 1.8m wide, and built of wood, fibre glass, carbon fibre and Kevlar.

    Indeed, he wasn’t allowed to go beyond these parameters during the row and up until two months ago, had not rowed for longer than 10 minutes.

    “This has helped me immensely in my preparation. I knew I was doing this for 48 hours and not 40 days – the anticipated time the challenge could take –and I underestimated the pacing at the start,” the world’s fastest Arabic-speaking triathlete, who has put on 15kg of muscle through his intense training regime, told Sport360.

    “It taught me it’s not just about the rowing, but about the recovery and how quickly you get your chores done on the boat, as well as trying to get as much sleep as possible, hydrate and eat the right things.”

    On Sunday, Nour travels to Egypt to meet up with Samra and they plan to train together on the River Nile.

    It’s there where they will work alongside each other for the first time on the water before the Egyptian duo head to the UK for further testing and course work.

    He added: “It doesn’t matter how hard you can row, you can’t fight the elements and nature – so you have to understand it and use it to your advantage, so that’s the next step for us and to continue the hard work we’re doing physically.”

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