Brasilia Multisport on the International Stage

Alexandre Carrijo / 08.11.2011

Brasilia Multisport was inspired by the world famous Coast to Coast in New Zealand and has taken place in July for the last 4 years in Brazil’s capital: Brasilia. This event gathers the best Brazilian adventure racers and has attracted great internationals like Coast to Coast Champion’s Ian Edmond and promising youngster Sam Clark, both from New Zealand. Even its creator Robin Judkins has been to Brasilia to attest to the international quality of the event. Other visitors have been the Romero family, with Paul, Jordan and Karen Lundgren enjoying the race.

The race has put together the urban highlights and the country side of an international World Heritage city. Brasilia is quite unique for its modern city design and architecture. The racers departure and finish is in the city centre amongst monumental buildings, ready for a fast escape to the wild.

The most adventure part of the course is the white water river paddle and the steep running sections on the second part of the route. Climate plays a critical part as Brasilia is 1.000 meters above sea level and at that time of the year the air is dry (around 15%), hot during the day (30 degrees Celsius) and a bit chilly at night. Race times are 7h15 for winner with a 12h maximum, with two cut offs to match this time limit.

The race begins with a 6k flat run, then 15k lake kayak, 67k road bike, 3k rock run, 17k river kayak, 21k off road run on the Cerrado vegetation and 11k road bike back to finish. A total of 140 km. Any sort of kayaks can be used and for internationals good quality kayaks are provided. All athletes bring their own bikes. The Premier category is for individuals (there is a prize money) but there are also pairs and relay categories. Also, there’s a short course of 25k to help beginners enter the sport.

Although multisport is reputed to be the beginning of adventure races, in Brasil AR came first. It has taken place since 1998 when the first EMA was put on. Since then, there hasn’t been too much renovation among Brazilian adventure racers and the main goal of Brasilia Multisport, which has been held since 2008, is to help individuals to be prepared to face a team experience in adventure racing. The experience has been positive as there are more people on the starting line for it than in triathlon starts in Brasilia, which is triathlon Mecca in Brasil. It seems that kayaking is on athletes training diaries more and more these days.

And the good news is that Ecomotion, the biggest Brazilian AR is going to happen in a region close to Brasilia in May next year. The event has changing hands and the world’s well known athlete Shubi Guimaraes, from the all female Atenah Team, will take over the event. Ecomotion wants to be back on ARWS and will explore next year a pristine area reputed as Brazil’s water cradle, as three important rivers have their source there. It has created a spectacular canyoning paradise with open and deep canyons in a warm climate. Certainly these will be one of the highlights of Ecomotion’s 2012 edition.

To find out more see www.vivabrasilia.com