One.Tel sponsor the Hebridean Challenge

Rob / 09.04.2002

Telecoms and internet company One.Tel have galloped to the rescue and come in as a last minute title sponsors for this years Hebridean Challenge, which starts on May 6th.

Last year’s inaugural race was a great success, and had numerous supporting sponsors, including Western Isles Enterprise, The North Face, Caledonian MacBrayne, and Polaris, but didn’t manage to secure a title sponsor. With less than a month to go things were not looking too good this year either – until One.Tel came to the party.

They’ve just set up a new broadban call centre in Stornoway, the biggest town on the isles, and the finishing point of the race. The race will give them good local exposure and lots of good will, and the extensive T.V. coverage planned (in part due to the fact the race is a British Championships qualifier), was also an attraction. The race is being filmed by both the BBC Grandstand programme – (the first Adventure Sport Race ever to be featured on Grandstand) - and by Dream Team TV for Channel Four, S4C and Sky Digital.

Naturally the race organisers, the Hebridean Challenge Community Trust, are delighted, even more so as some of the agencies supporting businesses on the isles will now give matching funding to the event. So, they benefit twice over!

Entries are looking good too, with around 20 teams of 5 eagerly looking forward to one of Martin Stone’s logistical extravaganza’s. Jon Brooke described last year’s race as the “most complex logistical exercise ever mounted in peace time”! The course will take them through the whole of the ‘Long Isle’, visiting every inhabited island in the Outer Hebrides.

The news isn’t all good though, entries for the solo category are very low (only 3 or 4) and it’s doubtful if it will happen. There is an extra prize this year for the winning team though, they’ll get a free place in the British Championships final at the end of September, and the 2nd placed team will be guaranteed a place too.

The race runs from May 6th – 10th 2002 and there is more information on the race web site here When the race is underway SleepMonsters.com will be carry daily reports on results – as always you can find out what’s happening in British Adventure Racing right here.