Internationals Score Anaconda Adventure Wins
News Release / 10.12.2012
It was a good day for the international adventure racers today at Lorne for the finale of the 2012 Anaconda Adventure Race National Series, with New Zealand and French flags flying high under blue skies and sunshine.
Kiwi Braden Currie registered his third win of the three-race series, the clean sweep also delivering him the Series Title unchallenged.
Frenchwoman and world champion adventure racer Myriam Guillot took the women’s category win, making it a back-to-back effort after taking the Lorne podium in 2011.
Local pride was upheld in a suitably gutsy manner, however, with Victorian Deanna Blegg limping home in second, a calf injury off the swim curtailing her trail run and ride, but not her claim to the 2012 Anaconda Adventure Race Series title.
Braden Currie again bolted on course, taking the lead in the run after pegging back places on the swim and paddle. Looking to make up for last weekend’s loss to Australian’s Jarad Kohlar and James Pretto in longer-form adventure outing, the Mark Webber Challenge, Currie warmed up slowly before showing his customary speed on the trail legs. His and other competitors’ run wasn’t without drama, with vandals changing course markings sending many racers in the top thirty up the proverbial (wrong) garden path.
While Currie and others looked to correct their route, Kohlar used local knowledge to advantage, running on auto pilot and missing the sabotaged signage to stay on the right track.
Regaining the correct route, Currie and others did the gentlemanly thing and self-corrected, holding off for a few minutes after assessing their unintended misdirection meant that they had run a shorter course.
Despite the course vandalism on the run leg, and thanks to the collective amiability of all the top end athletes, podium places were not affected by the misdirection of turned arrows and moved marking tape.
“After a lengthy chat with competitors, we believe some people gained time by running a shorter course but they also lost time trying to resolve the error. We have spoken to all top ten solo males and they are happy to have the results recorded in the order that they crossed the line,” said course organisers.
Quick thinking by Geelong competitor Cameron Shakespeare, who was running in the top fifteen individuals at the time, meant that the majority of the field were unaffected by the vandalism, Shakespeare correcting the signage before continuing on. Admirably, he still finished 13th male overall).
