Southern Traverse
Teams Arrive in Dunedin
Southern Traverse / 09.11.2003
The event kicks off at 8.30am in Monday 10 February in Dunedin\'s Octagon. From there competitors will race through the streets towards the start of their adventure and four to five days and 411km of mountain biking, trekking, coasteering and kayaking with the minimum of sleep.
The fastest teams are expected to complete the course by Thursday morning but the slowest won\'t cross the finish line until early Saturday morning.
Widely regarded as one of the hardest endurance events on the adventure racing calendar, the Southern Traverse has attracted 31 teams of four from destinations as diverse as Russia, USA, New Calendonia and Korea as well as New Zealand. Some are competing to win the prize of a free entry into the Adventure Racing World Championships in Canada in 2004, others are hoping simply to finish.
\"It\'s fantastic that we\'re able to start the race in the centre of the city,\" said Pacale Lorre, Southern Traverse director. \"We\'re hoping that everyone comes and supports these fantastic athletes. They will definitely be encouraged by cheers from the crowd.\"
For the first time this year, the public can view each day\'s action via video on the web using the latest technology from the UK. (This is sponsored by SleepMonsters.com and we\'ll have a live link from our Southern Traverse reporting page. We\'ll also have exclusive reports by Derek Paterson.)
The race web site, always one of the best in the world, will have a live leaderboard and much more - just use the link on the right to check out the latest positions.
SleepMonsters
