Rollo\'s Adventure 6
World-class adventure racers Richard and Elina Ussher win the Rollo's Six Hour race.
press release / 22.09.2007
The Nelson-based athletes have won three world championships between them and predictably made light work of Saturday's multi-sport, two-person race based at Greenslade Park. An indecisive start was Team Adventure Sport's only mistake as it reached all 15 checkpoints and completed the extra stage in 6hr 13min.
"I wasn't paying attention to the map and we ran 200m before I thought we can get those checkpoints later," Richard Ussher explained. "So we came back and got on the bikes and cleared all the ones we could do on land and did the rest in the kayak."
Nelson athletes rounded out the top four with Andrew and Jane Martin second in 6hr 25min. Tiffany Farnsworth and Brent Stuart finished third equal with Luke Chapman and Adam Gausel in 6hr 30min.
The only challenge for Team Adventure Sport was a testing, 90-minute orienteering section involving 25 controls. But once it collected those, it was full speed ahead around the rest of the course which circumnavigated most of Rabbit Island.
"It was a tough orienteering course - we took 1½ hours. But it was a really, really good race.
"It's the first time we've done the go-and-get format and you couldn't ask for better. There was something for the kayakers, something for cyclists and something for the orienteers."
The race also provided a good hit out for Richard Ussher before he heads to Australia for the second round of the Anaconda series at Forster, New South Wales this weekend.
Ussher intends completing the rest of the Anaconda series which involves another two races in Western Australia on November 4 and Victoria on December 9.
Elina Ussher will also go to Australia, but according to her husband only to "do some shopping and go to the beach".
The Finland-born racer's next assignment is likely to be the Caribbean version of the Coast to Coast in Trinidad on October 6 and 7.
"She's racing really well at the moment," Richard Ussher said. "She attracted a lot of attention in our last race in China where she smashed all the boys - she was the only woman on the podium."
AlpSports Martin Byrne and Cathy Barr won the duathlon section of Saturday's Rollo's Six Hour race in 6hr 3min.
The next Adventure Nelson race will be the Musselman from Picton to Nelson on October 28.
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