Expedition Africa

Haglofs Silva Win Expedition Africa

Rob Howard / 10.05.2013

After a night of drama, excitement and tension the first team to reach the finish line of Expedition Africa 2013 were Haglofs Silva, who have lead for much of the race but have been stranded on steep cliffs all night in dense fog.  

When the Swedish team arrived just after 10.00am they looked confused, it wasn’t the usual winner’s finish line celebrations, because after an awful night on the mountain they were sure they had lost the race in its final stages.  Bjorn Rydval was the first to realise what was happening, just after he crossed under the Finish banner, and his was the first face to break into a smile. He asked again to make sure; “We are the first? That is amazing!”  Matias Nystrom

As the team lined up for photos there was yet more emotional drama for the exhausted team as Race Director Heidi Muller told them about the time credit of 35 minutes carried by teams Raidlight and Tecnu and that they could not be confirmed winners until that 35 minutes was passed. Now they looked worried that they might yet lose the race they had just a moment ago thought they had won, but they were reassured quickly the chasing teams were still some distance off the finish and headed into reception of the Orion Mout-aux-Source hotel to check the tracking for themselves.

Matias Nystrom, who been tearful on the finish line, explained what had happened overnight. “The fog was so thick we just could not see anything and the ground was so steep and difficult it was too dangerous to go on.  It was very wet and slippery and we could not find a safe way down. We were going up and down for hours and after calling the Race Director to tell him the situation we spent a couple of hours in our tent.”

I asked him how he felt in the night and he replied, “I thought I was going to die!  We would never normally try to move in those conditions. We were so wet and cold as well.

“Once it was daylight it was much easier to see but we still came down into the wrong valley, to another nearby resort, but luckily we could find a track across to the finish.”

Asked if the thought the race had been lost as they walked back in he said, “Yes, we were sure we had lost the race after spending so long trying to find the way down.”

Josefina Wikburg added, “We have had nothing to eat for the last 12 hours so we are all really hungry.”

The team settled down to eat, and open their champagne wrapped in blankets in front of the log fire in the hotel reception and counted down the minutes down to confirm they were the winners of a race which had a real sting in the tail and produced one of the most memorable finishes in recent years.