Samsung Action Asia Challenge
Ford No Boundaries Wins 5th Action Asia Challenge
AAC / 06.10.2003
Hong Kong, 5th October 2003 - Hong Kong’s premier adventure race, the SAMSUNG Action Asia Challenge, was won by local team Ford No Boundaries, one of Asia’s top teams. Team mates Pedro Ribeiro, Fred Bourquin and Gary Mandy, completed the spectacular and demanding 38 km course through Hong Kong’s stunning Tai Lam Country Park in just six hours and two minutes. World Class triathlete Gary Mandy replaced Daniel Brown who was injured earlier this year during the Transalp mountain bike race and helped Ford No Boundaries to a 5th win in an AAC race. The team has been competing in the series since it began in 1996.
Speaking at the finish line Bourquin said, “It was a challenging course and a real test to us, both physically and mentally. The environment in the mountains was beautiful and the weather very sunny, a great day for a race. It’s very exciting to be at the front of a race when you know there are so many athletes running behind you.“
The course, starting at The Gold Coast Hotel careened some 40 kilometers through tunnels, gorges, and mountain trails in the Tai Lam Country Park and ended back at the Gold Coast Hotel with a spectacular 75 meter zip line ride from the hotel balcony to the finish line. (Technical support for the rope and climbing sections of the race was provided by the Hong Kong climbers, including Chun Kin Man, who earlier this year summited Mount Everest. )
“We worked very closely with the best people in Hong Kong’s mountaineering community to assure us of the safest and most exciting rope and climbing sections for this race,� said course designer Michael Maddess. He worked with the other race organisers and the Hong Kong Tourism Board, who sponsored the event, to select the location. The Tourist Board were keen to emphasise that nearly 40% of Hong Kong is protected country parkland, and the racers made the most of what the Tai Lam area had to offer.
More than 200 sprinted across the starting line at 8:30am and took part in trail running, tunnel and river swimming, gorge climbing, a spectacular 100 meter abseil down the Tai Lam Chung Reservoir dam, mountain biking, ocean kayaking and swimming, and another 150 meter flying fox section at Perowne Barracks.
In addition to the main race, Action Asia introduced a Junior Challenge for kids ages 6 to 13 and more than 100 children competed in their first adventure race through Perowne Barracks. The winner was Mike Howarth of Island School. “The idea was to introduce children to adventure racing, and to give them a taste of competition, sportsmanship and team work,� said Junior Challenge race director, Adrienne Ng.
The Hong Kong Samsung Action Asia Challenge is the first race of the 2003-2004 series which comprises 5 events this season, with the next event being held in Taiwan on November 16th. The Taiwan race will feature a pre-dawn start and the course will traverses the Fu Long Coast just an hour and a half outside the bustling capital city of Taipei.See All Event Posts
