Endurance Quest
Endurance Quest in Finland full of Drama
Press Release / 26.08.2024
The 2024 Endurance Quest gathered 25 teams of four from seven countries to compete over a 230-kilometer route starting from Hanko.
The 11th edition of Finland's only international adventure race was full of drama for all of the favourites and ultimately ended in a surprising Swedish celebration. The Finnish team Bull Adventure had to settle for second place because one member of the four-person team was missing a punch on their competition SI-card, used to indicate they had visited a checkpoint.
The penalty for Bull Adventure wasn't the only surprise of the weekend. All top five teams that were expected to fight for the win faced significant drama.
Last year's winner, Multisport.fi, was the first to drop out. One of their athletes recorded a high fever the day before the competition, and after over twenty attempts to find a substitute, the team had to start with just three members, competing outside the official results.
The Estonian team, Estonia Ace – La Sportiva, who were 3rd at last year's World Championship, also faced difficulties. They left their mandatory GPS tracker at Transition Area 3 and received a one-hour time penalty, crushing their chances to win in the highly competitive race.
The Oulu-based team Asuntoauto.eu, who have had an excellent season and lead the Finland national series, performed strongly throughout Saturday. They entered the third-to-last stage, a challenging 18-kilometer night orienteering section, in the lead. However, the difficult Kopparnäs terrain proved to be their downfall when they punched the wrong checkpoint, 250 meters off course. As a result, they were relegated to a shorter route, and out of the fight for the victory.
The victory battle, which had been extremely close and intense, ultimately came down to a contest between the Swedish team NIAR Adventure, who were 3rd at the 2021 World Championships, and Finland's Bull Adventure.
The fight culminated at the final checkpoints, where Bull Adventure managed to navigate 15 minutes faster than the Swedes, completing the gruelling race which took over 21 hours of non-stop effort. However, the final order wasn't determined by the finishing sequence but by another twist of fate: Bull Adventure missed a punch on their competition card, and the resulting 30-minute time penalty dropped them to second place. Estonian Ace - La Sportiva took third place, despite their time penalty.
Asuntoauto.eu, who had the most comprehensive performance of the weekend, ended up in 12th place due to their wrong checkpoint punch.
The Swedish team NIAR Adventure team included Staffan Björklund, Sonny Peterson, Rickard Norlin & Johanna Edman and with their win they secured a spot in the European Championship final to be held in the Netherlands in September.
Staffan said: “Endurance Quest reached beyond all our expectations. It was a very well planned and beautiful course with a lot of different route options. That combined with tight racing against some of the top teams in the world made it a 'nail-biter', not only for those who were watching the live tracker but also for us racing. Considering the navigation mishaps we had in the early stages, that some of our essential equipment broke and on top of that, some bad stomach problems, we are really happy with the victory.
“You have to race until you have crossed the finish line and that’s what we did. We never gave up. We knew other teams could have made mistakes. However, we were surprised when the organization first said we were second when we crossed the finish line. Later they announced us as winners of Endurance Quest 2024 and we were really happy and proud about the win!”
The Bull Adventure team, which won silver, included Tommi Putkuri, Outi Seppä, Pekka Niemi, and André Haga.
Endurance Quest offered a diverse and challenging course
The internationally respected Endurance Quest Espoo once again provided competitors with top-notch Finnish adventure sports expertise. The race, divided into nine sections, featured fast-paced trails for the biking sections and technically demanding forest trails. A particular challenge for the competitors was the sea kayaking section in Inkoo and the nearly three-hour night orienteering section on the Kopparnäs cliffs.
EQ is known for always offering something new, and this time, it was the first time since the early 2000s that a Finnish adventure race included horseback riding. The level of difficulty was raised even further as the athlete on horseback had to shoot five arrows at a ground target while riding at a walking pace at Fageräng stables in Halujärvi, Espoo.
As is typical for the sport, teams also faced climbing challenges, with teams tackling difficult tasks at the Leppävaara adventure park Huippu near the end of the race.
The European Champions in 2025 will be crowned in Saimaa
Next year, Endurance Quest will be the ARWS European Championship Final, and the competition will be held in a completely new area. The race routes will be built in August 2025 in the Saimaa region, with Savonlinna, Sulkava, Puumala, and Rantasalmi as event partners.
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