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Canadian finishes Southern Traverse

Susan McKenzie / 18.11.2004

Pauline Kitamura may be racing under the Japanese flag, but she was born in Toronto and lives in Vancouver. She is also the lone Canadian racing at the 2004 edition of the Southern Traverse, and as such the only Canadian to finish the race.

Kitamura and her Suunto Japan team mates Takashi Suguyama, Akihiko Katayama and Takashi Suzuki crossed the finish line around 6pm Friday night, on the shortened Adventure Course.

Suunto Japan has the dubious honour of being the only team to use a camera to prove it went (sort of) to a CP. At what they thought was CP6 (it wasn\'t), the team arrived to discover no CP staff (that would be because the CP was actually a little ways down the road). So, in order to prove they went there, they took photos of themselves at the CP.

\"Good enough for me, creative way of dealing with an issue,\" was Geoff Hunt\'s response.

\"This was so hard, oh my God it was hard,\" Kitamura said at the finish. \"Even that last walk, which was suposed to be fun, our feet were so sore. I was expecting it to be hard, but not that hard.\"