Expedition Africa 2014
The Home Nation Challenge is Stronger Than Ever
Rob Howard / 23.05.2014
There may be strong international competition at Expedition Africa, but the home nation teams will be out to take the scalps of the big name visitors and there are many experienced racers and teams in S. Africa.
Top of the list in recent years have been the Merrell Adventure Addicts, who won the first two Expedition Africa races in 2011 and 2012. Things didn’t go so well for them at the race last year and they also had quite a few team changes, some due to injury and illness, but bounced back strongly to finish 5th in the AR World Champs in Costa Rica. (This got them back into the top 10 of the World Rankings.)
Ahead of that race came the shock news that stalwart team member Donovan Sims had been diagnosed with Hairy Cell Leukemia, forcing him to pull out, but the good news is that he is now back racing. Ahead of the race the team reported that; “Having had extensive consultations with specialists and adapting his lifestyle over the past four months, Donovan’s Leukemia has settled to manageable levels and has allowed him to return to full strength. Donovan will be joined by Graham Bird and Craig Carter-Brown to form an experienced pack of gents.”
Joining them will be one of New Zealand’s top female racers, Jo Williams. She finished second with team RandR Sport Torpedo in the highly competitive Godzone World Series race earlier in the year and has shown she is in good form since arriving in S. Africa, finishing as 1st lady and 7th overall in the 51km Merrell Whale of Trail Race recently.
Merrell might be the bigger international name, but just as experienced and the top S. African finishers last year, when they were 4th, are Team Cyanosis. The team are lead by expert navigator and rogainer Nicholas Mulder, who is joined by Nathan Thompson and Clinton Mackintosh, and new team member Hilary Pitchford-Bruss. She is an international standard paddler with all round multisport skills and will be aiming to help her new team go one better and get on the podium this time.
The other very experienced and successful international racers from South Africa taking part are not so well known – except to those who have long memories. John and Mark Collins were among the elite of S. African racing a decade ago, racing with the strong Mazda sponsored team who burst onto the international scene taking 4th place at Eco-Challenge in Fiji. They were subsequently 5th in the World Champs in Newfoundland and Eco-Challenge Borneo, and with a high profile expedition race on home soil they’ve been tempted back.
They race in Team Painted Wolf with Andre Cie and like the other South African teams are joined by a new female team member, this time all the way from Chile – Veronica Bravo Vergara. She has been a prolific racer, sportswoman and adventurer, is a successful ultra runner, has won Huairasinchi in Ecuador, raced in Patagonia and completed last year’s brutal World Champs course with a Costa Rican team.
It is intriguing to see if Painted Wolf can make an impact on the front end of the race and there are many who would not bet against it, but Race Director Stephan Muller is not so sure. “The thing is, I don’t know if they realise just how far expedition adventure racing has progressed these past couple of years. Teams push harder than ever before. They’re fitter, faster, stronger and smarter.”
There are many other strong S. African teams, with growing experience and confidence, and Muller picks out from Black Diamond and Castle Lite as well as Olympus, Jabberwock, PennyPinchers and Warriors as home teams to watch.
They may have a good competition among themselves as well as Warriors, Black Diamond, Castle Lite and Olympus were the final full course teams to finish last year, and all within an hour of each other.
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