Gardner First Men\'s Brit To Claim Xterra Championship Victory
News Release / 03.09.2008
Four hours away from the bustling urban sprawl of Tokyo and its 35 million residents sits the Kanko So Resort – a traditional Japanese inn remotely situated in the protected natural preserve of Nikko National Forest 4,000 feet above sea level where nobody lives year round (The resort gets snowed in during the winter months). On Saturday here, in what has been referred to as “Samurai Country,†more than 200 athletes representing Australia, England, Mexico, Saipan, America, and the home country gathered for the fifth running of the XTERRA Japan Championship at Oku-Nikko Marunuma in the Gunma prefecture.Heavy rain had pounded the surrounding mountains for weeks and the night before the race thunder echoed through the forest and lightening lit up the dark night keeping competitors and organizers alike awake in their beds wondering what it would look like in the morning. At first light it was still grey and race director Taro Shirato – one of the country’s triathlon legends – contemplated revising the bike course to keep competitors safe from possible landslides and the slippery, muddy single track trails that ran perilously close to steep drop offs in the middle of the jungle.
Alas the sun came out at 9am, and following a pre-ride to test conditions and the land owners’ approval the full 30-kilometer course was put back in play to the delight of all involved and the race went off in calm conditions at noon. First up was the two-lap 1.5-kilometer swim in the ultra clean 65-degree waters of Marunuma Lake. Among the first pack out of the water was Sam Gardner from the UK, female pro Maiko Ohta and Takahiro Ogasawara from Japan. Gardner had the quickest transition of the bunch and hit the trails first.
“I had the best swim of my life, knowing that one of my main competitors would be an ex-Japanese mountain bike champion and team mate to British Olympian Liam Killeen,†said Gardner, referring to Ogasawara who was 2nd here last year in just his first-ever XTERRA.
“I exited the water in third position and with a swift transition I was in the lead at the start of the bike. With the chance of a clear track I attacked the good old British muddy conditions. In a day where I could do little wrong I had a great bike leg and built up a comfortable lead.â€
Gardner, who by trade is a firefighter in his hometown of Surrey in Great Britain, comes from a mountain biking background and nearly made the Olympic team years ago. Those skills came in handy as he tackled what all pros that have done this race consider “the toughest and most technical mountain bike course on the entire XTERRA Global Tourâ€.
With nearly 10 minutes on “Oga-san†heading into T2 Gardner simply had to hang on during the run, no easy task considering the nature of the scramble which heads along the rocky shoreline of the lake before literally climbing straight up rocky streams and moss-covered rocks before tackling sections of thick mud in the all-green, fern-strewn forest trails.
