Eco-Challenge
Against All Odds
Rob / 20.10.2002
A word of advice – never write a story entitled ‘The Very Last Gasp’. There is now just over an hour to go until the course closes on Eco-Challenge 2002 and only one team are still out there …… it couldn’t be anyone else, it was destined to be The North Face Kona – the pride of the UK – no matter what happens.
The leaderboard (that leaderboard) shows them in 23rd place, but don’t believe it - that’s not how it really is. They are shown last of the 23 teams which are not disqualified, but many of those shown as finished already have been timed out or short coursed – it’s just that the leaderboard isn’t designed to show this and the reporting staff on the race web site are doing what they’ve been doing all along – not telling us what is going on. (As confirmation of this Canadian sites report Subaru Canada as finishing the full course in 8th, but they show 18th on the leaderboard.)
Right now, with just an hour to go TNF Kona are shown as leaving the last PC, ironically the famous Beachcomber Resort, at 06.34am on the 21st – leaving 3 hours 26 minutes to paddle to the finish line. The worst case scenario I’d thought of last night is past – they’ve not been stopped at any PC’s – the are out of the last checkpoint within the course closure time and they are winners!
Surely, there is no way Mark Burnett will pull them off of the final paddle – and he will make the decision. (He is after all the Executive Producer – not the Race Director.) The negative PR would be too much and anyway the team are now a great story – right now they are the only story. They’ll complete the course, and we hope they’ll do it within the time limit, but if they fail to meet an arbitrary time limit by a small margin it shouldn’t matter at all. As long as they get round they’ve succeeded.
It’s impossible to imagine what they’ll be thinking as they paddle into the finish line, their hopes may still be rising and falling with the swell on the Fijian seas as they aim for the final landfall. They’ll have company though, the die-hard cameramen and safety crews have no-one else to watch now. They have daylight too and there will be a crowd on the beach to applaud them in – they’ll hear them from some way off shore. Their’s will be a glorious finish and they’ll be cheered in by most of the other racers – who will be there for the team that’s been on the course longer than any other and has refused to give up.
SleepMonsters
