Trans Tasman Adventure Rivalry Heats Up With Announcement Of Kiwi Representative Team
News Release / 01.08.2012
While the Anaconda Adventure Race national Series kicks off in Noosa, Queensland, next weekend (11-12 August) Kiwi interest will likely fast forward to the Augusta outing in Western Australia in November, with the announcement of the trio who will make up the New Zealand team vying for the hotly contested Trans Tasman Trophy.
Last year’s Anaconda Series runner-up, Wanaka-based Braden Currie, will be joined in the West by 28 year-old Xterra gun Nic Leary from Rotorua and 22 year-old Whakatane local, Sam Clark.
The threesome will head to Augusta with a weight of expectation following Team New Zealand’s breakthrough win in 2011, captained by multisport guru Richard Ussher. Last year’s triumph over the Aussies was the first with for the Kiwis in four stoushes.
“I think we still prefer the under-dog status,” says Nic of the suggestion that her team will go in as favourites this year. “We’re still a trio of relative rookies given we are without our ace in Richard Ussher. But we look forward to matching it with the best of the Aussies on their turf.”
Rotorua-based Nic is the only member of the Kiwi team without Anaconda Adventure Race experience, Sam Clark having taken third in the once-off New Zealand edition of the series in 2010 and Braden Currie nearly tilting the series title with a first on the Gold Coast last year followed by a third in Augusta (WA) and a second in Lorne (Vic). Currie’s results were enough for him to take second place for the overall series in 2011.
The Trans Tasman Trophy is conducted annually as part of the Anaconda Adventure Race at Augusta to see which country can claim to be the best adventure racing nation. A designated team consists of two males and one female. Each athlete competes as an individual with their cumulative times discerning the overall Trans Tasman winner.
The New Zealand Team was selected based on results at New Zealand’s multisports championships, the Expand-A-Sign 3D Rotorua Off-Road Winter Multisport Festival. With the winners of that race, Richard and Elina Ussher, unable to compete in November, duties fell to podium place getters Currie (2nd), Clark (3rd) and Leary (Women’s 2nd).
The Australian team will be decided by placings at the Noosa Anaconda Adventure Race on August 12th with the first individual female and first plus second individual males (who are Australian citizens) offered a position.
To anyone following the Anaconda Series last year, Wanaka-based Braden Currie is no stranger, the 25 year-old exploding from the woodwork to take a surprise win in the Gold Coast event. That performance marked a return to serious racing for Currie.
“My first three races (back) were the Anaconda race series last year. The race format and style were perfect for my lead up for a tilt at the Coast to Coast.”
Currie placed third there before taking first at the Motutapu Xterra Tri, automatically qualifying him for the World Xterra Championships, in October in Hawaii.
“I have decided to put everything into training and competing for at least the next eight months and see where it takes me,” says Currie, whose Xterra ambitions will no doubt serve Team Kiwi well in Augusta come November.
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