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Contenders out at AR World Championship – Team Montrail withdraws

Susan McKenzie / 02.08.2004

Withdrawing from a race is perhaps the most difficult decision any racer or team must make. For experienced racer, those with a real shot at winning the race, it\'s an excruciating and almost impossible decision to make. Four teams have so far had to make that decision at the 2004 AR World Championship in Newfoundland: Wild Rose is continuing unranked as a trio, after Brent Clark withdrew due to injury, Discovery/The North Face and, this morning, Montrail.

Team Montrail, captained by American racer Rebecca Rusch, was one of a handful of teams favoured to win this race. But, as often happens in adventure racing, injury has put paid to its hope of a World Championship title.

As the team paddled into CP7, it looked strong. But on land, it was clear that wasn’t’ exactly true. Matthew Weatherley-White was favouring his left shoulder, and Patrick Harper could hardly walk.

“I took a real header onto a rock on the trek yesterday,� Weatherley-White says as he searches for a missing yellow dry bag. “The doctor say I have a partially-separated shoulder. I’m in so much pain I cannot tell you.�

It was an IT band that was causing Patrick Harper so much trouble.

“It started hurting about six hours into the first trek,� he says. “The coasteering bit at the start was really rocky and uneven. I injured it last year and really thought it had healed.� It hadn’t. And after receiving medical treatment, Harper realised he could not continue to race.

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