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January 9, 2010

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Manca in critical condition after crash

ITALIAN motorcyclist Luca Manca was critically injured in a fall during the sixth stage of the Dakar Rally on Thursday in Chile and was placed in an induced coma.

Officials at Del Cobre Hospital in Calama, where 29-year-old Manca was airlifted, said he sustained critical head injuries and was breathing on a respirator. Officials described his condition as "life-threatening."

"These are critical injuries," said Dr Miguel Cortes, who treated Manca following the accident. "He's on a ventilator and in an induced coma so we can keep him resting and so he does not fight the ventilator."

Race officials said Manca was later transferred to a hospital in Santiago, capital of Chile.

Manca, lying ninth overall in his first Dakar, crashed only 10 kilometers into the 418-kilometer stage through the Atacama Desert in northern Chile from Antofagasta to Iquique.

He was praised following Wednesday's fifth stage for giving defending champion Marc Coma of Spain a rear wheel so Coma could finish the stage.

In another accident on Thursday, Portuguese rider Paulo Goncalves of BMW broke his collarbone in a crash and withdrew.

The Dakar Rally is considered one of the most dangerous events in motor sports. On January 2, a 28-year-old woman was killed when a vehicle taking part in the race veered off the course and hit her during the opening stage.

French motorcyclist Pascal Terry died last year in the race.

 

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