The Classic Southern Traverse
Powered by Velvet wins Southern Traverse
12.04.2008
As the winning team Powered by Velvet has gained an entry into the prestigious Adventure Racing World Championships in Brazil in August.
The formidable team and includes Coast to Coast guru George Christison, Sonya Clark, Chris Morrissey and Rhys Burns who are all highly proficient and skilled adventure racers.
The team completed the race in 21 hours 44 minutes but was strongly challenged over the 199km course by the Icebreaker R&R Sport team which crossed the finish in 23hours 54 minutes. Icebreaker is made up of Dunedin and Queenstown athletes Matt Woods, Haydn Key, Mark Williams and Sarah Fairmaid who all have a high profile in adventure racing.
A key feature of interest was the sisterly rivalry between Clark and Fairmaid, who are both expert racers in their own right.
“It is always good to race against each other and at times we can even catch up out on the course which we did during the overnight trek,� says Clark.
The Southern Traverse was first held in 1991 and returned this year to a classic format of three days rather than the longer five day event. Nine teams from throughout New Zealand competed.
“We wanted to go back to a shorter race format with an emphasis on navigation, avoid the traditional extreme physical exhaustion for athletes but still provide a night time racing element,� says Race Director Geoff Hunt.
“I think we have achieved that and although we only attracted a small field there was some fantastic competition and the teams were very excited about the terrain.�
He says the course which included 90 kms of mountain biking, four trekking stages totalling 75kms and a 34km paddling stage used some incredible country.
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