No Eco-Challenge in 2003?
Rob / 13.04.2003
For weeks there have been rumours that Mark Burnett, Eco-Challenge founder and CEO, was still negotiating a TV deal and the race might be postponed. Now a story on the website ‘Inside Triathlon’ quotes Monica Martino, a press officer with Eco-Challenge Productions, as saying the race will skip the year 2003 \"because of the uncertainty of the world situation\" and is now planned for the first quarter of 2004. There were hints too that the race organisation at the venue was not sufficiently far advanced and the slow progress on the new TV contract was given as another reason.
Eco-Challenge established itself as world famous event with Discovery Channel, and moved onto a contract with USA Network which expired after last year’s race in Fiji. It\'s very closely tied to TV companies (Mark Burnett is the Executive Producer not the Race Director) and it would appear no new deal is yet in place so there will be no race. The huge success of the reality TV show ‘Survivor’, which is also produced by Mark Burnett, may be another factor – perhaps the race is no longer the top priority?
There is no announcement on the Eco-Challenge web site as yet and releasing the story through a triathlon website may be a way to ‘soften the blow\'. It’s no surprise either that the main reason given is the “world situation†though that is likely to be a less significant factor than the time it’s taking to confirm a new TV deal.
Whatever the reason it’s still bad news for the sport. Eco-Challenge is the biggest name in Adventure Racing, and the publicity it’s generated has helped the sport to grow worldwide. It’s a great race which competitors around the world aspire to do ‘one day’ and many are inspired to take up the sport after seeing the TV programmes. It’s been held every year since 1995 in some fantastic locations, and will be missed this year.
Lets hope it is back in early 2004 as promised, which is, after all, only a few months delay.
SleepMonsters
