The Adventure Racing World Championships start today (Wed 2nd Nov) in Burnie, Tasmania. 80 teams of 4 are taking part in the multi-day race which will cover a 733km circuit with 52 checkpoints of Tasmanian coastline, bush and mountain in the rugged and beautiful North-West of the island. The winning team is expected to take 6 or 7 days!
With the strongest possible line up of teams, coming from every continent, the race is sure to be closely contested and to test teams to the limit. Many orienteers are taking part, and I’ve tried to list them all below. Again there will be great Aussie – NZ rivalry, with 2011 WOC foot orienteering representatives Chris Forne, Robbie Preston and Aaron Prince leading their no 2, no 3 and no 9 ranked teams respectively. However, like the Melbourne Cup, any “runner or team” has a chance of winning.
The race includes various trekking, mt biking, kayaking, and coasteering legs. It also involves a caving section where the organiser states “anyone afraid of confined spaces … is going to be very afraid.” Also on the “menu” is a clay shooting challenge; rafting; a waterfall abseil and canyoning section at Reynolds Falls. Plus a 75km paddle stage on the Arthur River with 12km of trekking along the way to find CP’s in the nearby pristine Tarkine forest. The highest point on the race will be on Black Bluff. The planners are confident teams will be very surprised at how long it takes to get to checkpoints in the Tasmanian bush!
2 Seagate Chris Forne (NZ)
3 TeamBlackheart Rob Preston
9 Silva Aaron Prince (NZ)
22 Cyanosis Nick Mulder (South Africa)
29 iadventure Seb Dunne, Danielle Winslow
30 its all good Kath Copland, Brett Sparkes
35 Mt Designs Gary Sutherland
46 City Bike Depot Kathryn Ewels, Sergey Kurov
47 Hardtale Steve Todkill, Maria Plyashenko, & Matt Bacon
48 Kauri Coasters Jon Sutcliffe
50 Brat Ingrid Stengard (Finland)
57 Dancing Pandas Thorlene Egerton
66 Mawson Ricky Thackray