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Haines shines, while Crawf gets dirty in wet Marysvilles to melbourne Race

Media Release - Rapid Ascent / 15.04.2011

These athletes showed their class and ran, cycled and kayaked from Marysville at dawn through to the heart of Melbourne with the cool conditions fuelling their will to the finish line. Luke Haines and Elizabeth Dornam were victorious conquering the whole race as individuals with Shane Crawford struggling in the first leg in his team of ex Hawks players.

Haines, from Geelong had a huge tussle with Reece Stephens from Melbourne in a close race that saw Haines only gain the lead mere kilometres from the finish in the final kayak paddle down the Yarra. He crossed the finish line in 7 hours 53 minutes, 2 minutes ahead of Stephens who was tiring after pushing himself to the limit in the 15km run leg. His efforts in the run were rewarded and he gained nearly 5 minutes over Haines before transitioning to the 32km kayak leg but he just didn’t have the arms to maintain the lead with Haines’ well-timed race making his dream become reality. A multisport specialist who is excellent across all disciplines, Haines has been focusing on the M2M and was ecstatic with the win. Haines said after the race, “Reece and I dropped the other guys on the descent after Kinglake which is where I knew I had to go if I had any chance of winning, and then he just took off in the next run leg�. He added, “I was told by my support crew that he didn’t look good in the transition to the kayak so I just pushed a s hard as I could. He managed a burst of speed when I tried to pass him but couldn’t keep it up.� Haines went into the race ranked number one so although a relief for him to achieve his dream it wasn’t a surprise to those who have seen how well he’s been training. Up and comer, James Pretto, also lived up to the hype finishing 15 minutes behind Stephens.

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