New Faces Lead New Zealand Multisport Series
Michael Jacques / 23.10.2003
There’s usually a Kiwi team near the front of the big international adventure races, and the racers in them will have practiced and raced on the multisport circuit in New Zealand, so it’s worth keeping an eye on who is winning there.The Sportzhub.com multisport series, which includes 9 races over 10 months, began last weekend (Oct. 18th) with 700 competitors racing in the Bay of Plenty on the Telecom Local Directories Motu Challenge, New Zealand’s second largest multisport race. The course was described as ‘scenic but savage’ and included a 65km mountain bike, 17km run, 52km road cycle, 27km white water kayak, 8km road cycle and a 3km run. As the North Island’s premier multisport event it attracted many of the country’s best competitors, and past winners include legends such as Steve Gurney, Nathan Fa’avae and Jill Westenra.
It illustrious company and Auckland’s Gordon Walker put in a performance which suggests he can be as successful as those past winners. It was expected to be a close race, but Walker took the lead in the opening kilometre of the initial mountain bike ride and kept pulling away to eventually win by the huge margin of more than 20 minutes. He was expected to do well on the mountain bike and cycle legs, but he was also the fastest runner and second fastest kayaker. His winning time of 7hrs 23min 52secs fell just 1min shy of the race record held by New Zealand’s greatest ever multisporter, Steve Gurney. (He was winning elsewhere on the day, defending his ‘Peak to Pub’ title – a combined running, skiing and snowboarding race – which finishes in the pub!)
Joanna Gosse won the women’s race, defending her title with the second fastest women’s time ever of 8hrs 41min 23secs. A strong all rounder who has improved every season since taking up the sport just three years ago, and is poised now too challenge the established female stars Jill Westenra and Kristina Strode-Penny. Walker is seen is the same way and is even spoken of as a successor to Steve Gurney when, or if, the nine-times Coast to Coast champion steps down.
The remaining races in the series will show whether that expectation is justified or not. The next event is the AMP Triathlon in November, then the Speights Coast to Coast and Mt Cook to Christchurch races in February, the Tongariro Classic and Alexandra Gold Rush during March, Wellington’s Kathmandu Crazyman during May, and finally the Coromandel Classic next August.
Walker may have run away with the lead at the first race, but there is still a long way to go in the series. (For more news on the series and racing in New Zealand see www.sportzhub.com.
