Motorsport: Second rider dies during Dakar rally

MILAN - Italian motorcyclist Fabrizio Meoni died of a heart attack today after a crash during stage 11 of the Dakar rally, a day after Spanish rival Jose Manuel Perez died from his injuries.

Meoni, who was married with two children, won the Dakar rally in 2001 and 2002 and had said this race would be his last. He was second in the motorcycle standings after the 10th stage.

Race director Etienne Lavigne said the 47-year-old, known by Italians as "The African", was tended by paramedics for 45 minutes at the scene of the crash, a third of the way through the 685-km stage between Atar and Kiffa in Mauritania.

However, they were unable to revive him.

On Monday Spanish biker Jose Manuel Perez, who fell during a stage in Mauritania last week, died in a Spanish hospital.

"This shows the ugly side of the race. The Dakar rally is fascinating, it's part of our passion, but there are certain things you wish would never happen," Italian newspaper La Repubblica quoted Meoni as saying after Perez' death.

More than a dozen competitors have died in the event, in which drivers speed over Sahara dunes, since it was first held 26 years ago as the Paris-Dakar rally. The race no longer starts from the French capital.

- REUTERS