Kona win the Isle of Wight Salomon-X One Day

Rob / 01.05.2002

The Isle of Wight was the venue for the first event in the 2002 One Day X-Adventure series and Team Kona won in windy conditions.

From complete novice teams, Smurfs of the Apocalypse’ and ‘Team Skiddadle’ who “had a fab time!” to adventure racing veterans Team Kona and Kiwi Connection, 23 teams battled it out on an 8 hour course set by Nigel Shepherd. The new eight hour format was a great hit with all participants.

Extremely windy conditions hampered some, with a canoe section that according to Team Kona was more like “surfing the waves of the Medina”! However the dry chalky, tracks provided teams with plenty of opportunities to make up time with some excellent, fast downhill mountain bike sections.

Team Kona (Kathryn Newberry, Neil Gard and Killian Lomas) completed the course in an impressive 6:31hrs collecting 440 points, followed by last year’s winners and local team, Offshore Crew in 7:38 hrs. Both got all 22 checkpoints. Kona said “A great race that suited us perfectly due to the fantastic off-road riding.”

Kiwi Connection picked up third place with 420 points in 7:41 hours – kept going by the infamous and ubiquitous Keith Byrne who provided entertainment around the course. A few teams went overboard on the penalties rather than the canoeing – specially ‘Hastings Runners – Carpe Diem’ who recorded the magnificent score of –500 pts!