MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine runner plans to honor Argentine and British servicemen buried in Falklands

Scomparin's 'Link Malvinas' project includes a daily run along the most emblematic sites such as battle grounds, Fitz Roy, Mount Longdon, Darwin, San Carlos

An Argentine amateur marathon runner plans next December to join 'Falklands emblematic sites', covering a distance of 280 kilometers in six days which will conclude the last leg linking the two cemeteries, Argentine and British “as a message of peace and dialogue”.

 Alejandro Scomparin lives in Buenos Aires and has embraced the “Malvinas cause” since 1982, when he was twelve and the “Argentine boys showed us the Islands are Argentine”.

The former head of Institutional Relations from the Technological University, says he recalls when in sixth grade the headmistress had all the children formed in the playground and “told us we had to write support letters for the soldiers, who were defending the fatherland”.

Scomparin until 2005 was also a professional referee in Argentina's main football league, and since then took on running and that is how he met Malvinas veteran and triathlete Ever Moreira, during a competition in Cordoba province.

”Ever is advising me with the equipment needed and climate conditions for my 'Link Malvinas' (Unir Malvinas) crossing. He told me to run in summer when days are longer and there is sunlight until eight in the evening“ revealed Scomparin, who is planning to fly to the Falklands on 10 December when the Lan flight calls at Rio Gallegos.

”As a teenager I grew up hating all that was English, to the extent in high school I failed my English tests, but with time I understood many things and convinced myself that was not the way ahead“, admits the marathon runner.

In effect reading history, meeting people talking about the war ”I realized the significance of courage and individual heroism“, and discovered that many Argentine veterans had become friends of British veterans. He also read the book written by Commodore Pablo Carballo, an Argentine air force pilot, honored for courage in combat, and later met him.

”He transmits a standing message of peace“ said Scomparin of his teenager hero.

The 'Link Malvinas' project includes a daily leg during the six days in the Islands, running along the most emblematic sites such as battle grounds, Fitz Roy, Mount Longdon, Darwin, San Carlos, Top Malo House, and finally the two cemeteries.

The running will be done following roads and public paths, but the most challenging is the last leg, 30 kilometers between the two cemeteries and ”because I plan to bury rosaries, one for each of the fallen, both Argentines and British“.

The original idea was to run by himself, however Scomparin admits he would like to be joined, ”when you cross the finishing line you need to embrace somebody“.

Finally ”I don't have an idea how I'm going to feel in each of the legs of the marathon, but I have to be psychologically prepared. This project is much to show that we Argentines are not warmongers and much less towards the people of the Islands”.