2002 Year Review
November/December – Kiwi’s are King
Rob / 31.12.2002
Seagate.com – Winners Again
Southern Traverse is now in it’s 12th year and in adventure racing terms that’s ancient. Only the Raid Gauloises has been around longer and that started in New Zealand too. It’s a classic 6 day, supported expedition race in the wild New Zealand back country, the home of adventure racing, and of many of the world’s top racers.
This year the race was away from it’s traditional home in the Southern Alps, making best use of the paddling opportunities in the Marlborough Sounds, and after their win at Eco-Challenge (and the Gorge Games earlier in the year) it was Seagate.com who took control of the race. They were on home ground and after a poor start moved into a lead on the first night, then stayed comfortably ahead of the chasing teams, including Team Lythgoe from the UK.
SleepMonsters.com was there to provide live, daily reports and pictures, and you can see them all here.
Flashy, Fast and Well Financed
If the Southern Traverse is ‘establishment’ then the Mild Seven Outdoor Quest is a brash, commercial newcomer. For the first time the race had moved out of China, into Sabah on the island of Borneo, but the format stayed the same, with fast, all-out daily stages, and teams retiring to their hotels by mid-afternoon each day! This race was about action images and TV exposure – and for the teams it was about winning big prize money. They were chasing a total of US$200,000.
Conditions were as hot as expected and injuries forced several top teams to pull out, but it was no surprise when Team Hi-Tec, led by Steve Gurney took first place. They had won the previous two races and once again it was the Kiwi’s who were king.
The UK challenge came from Saab Salomon, still finding their feet at these big international races, but moving fast enough to alert the established teams of a powerful new threat. Despite illness, helicopters flipping their boats and a bit of trouble and argument about the race timings they finished 5th equal and team manager Tim Lloyd sent us back daily reports. Read them here.
SleepMonsters
