Nelson’s top international adventure racers made light work of the inaugural Absolute Wilderness Adventure Race based in Murchison, charging through the 100 kilometre course, including a steep ascent of the Mole Tops in just under eight hours.
Sophie Hart, Nick Ross and Brent Edwards won the three-person teams race which included a rafting stage down the Buller River, two mountainbike stages and a rugged 20 kilometre alpine trek, in seven hours and 56 minutes. Ash and Naomi Whitehead and Dan Moore finished second in eight hours 46 minutes just edging out Josh Findlay, Ingrid Richter and Trevor Voyce by one minute after a sprint finish.
Event race organiser and world champion adventure racer Nathan Fa’avae was impressed with the fastest teams after earlier predicting a winning time of around 11 hours. He joked that the winning team’s name, Not Normal, was apt after they completed a super-fast trek to make a winning break on the chasers.
“I was bit surprised at how fast they went but they had perfect conditions. It also helped that there were three very strong teams pushing hard at the front end of the race,” Nathan said.
The quality of the women racers in the top three teams was underlined by the fact that their times were all faster than Chris Burr, Tim Peterson and Tim Pearson who won the men’s race in in 9 hours 41 minutes.
Sophie’s speed on the trek was especially impressive and even her team-mate and partner Nick admitted he was “worried about keeping up with these guys”.
The six-hour men’s adventure race was won by Woodies, Nigel Kelly, Malcolm Edridge and Brad Wallace, who made an impressive adventure racing debut completing the course in 4 hours 46 minutes. Ben Moulan, Meg Bichard and Ed Kerly won the mixed adventure race in 5 hours 8 minutes while Waimea College students Nathan Sturrock, Jackson Carver and Lachlan Brownlie won the youth section in a fast 4 hours 50 minutes.
Although the top teams made the race look easy, Nathan says there were plenty of big challenges on both courses and some of the teams had a long day at the office. Check point five in the adventure race had a lot of teams running around in circles while four or five teams in the expedition race took the scenic route to the Mole Hut after missing a side stream.
“When the teams got the maps and the course they thought it looked fairly tame but they soon found out they were going into real wilderness country. I think that’s why people enjoyed it so much because they went places they’d never been before and had a real adventure.”
Sixty-five teams competed in the race and Nathan says that has encouraged the organisers to make the Absolute Wilderness a regular event. He says next year’s race will again be held in Murchison which is a perfect place for adventure racing.
“I went up to the Mole Tops when I was in the fourth form at Nelson College and it blew me away. I’ve always thought it would be a great place for an adventure race and now, finally, we managed it.”
