Teva Kayak 'n Run
Spirits High With Battle To Finish At 1st TEVA Kayak ‘n Run Of Season
News Release / 17.06.2014
The raising of the T1 signal brought ideal conditions to race 1 of the Teva kayak ‘n run series. There were cooler conditions at the sold out race with the family and adult categories both full at the popular adventure orienteering race at Nim Shue Wan, Lantau Island.
Adrien Choux and Jerome Laboulais came off the mountain run leading into the final 3km ocean leg with (Team Ultim8 Adventure Lafuma) with Jens Floor and Martin Deukers (Jens & Martin) seconds behind. But after 3km that changed with the last year’s 2nd place team Crazy Gwai-Lo's of father and son Anthony Somerset and Hugh Somerset having a great kayak leg pushing Jens and Martin to the finish and coming in just seconds behind Jens & Martin.
Champs Jens & Martin said “We had teamed up last minute and got into a good rhythm in the kayak, but managed to get lost in the running. I always do. I sent Martin the wrong way, then we managed to catch the other teams on the run and tried to hold them on the kayak as they were pushing us. It was a good race. Fantastic.” The overall champions finished in 1 hour 27 minutes 50 seconds.
His team mate Martin said; “Yeh it was great to race with Jen as he’s always a fantastic kayaker as I was just paddling whenever and he was steering and paddling to stay ahead. The navigation was slightly off but we made it out and had a great downhill passing by everyone and back to the beach first. Very good race and really enjoyed it.”
It was a battle to the finish for the father and son Somerset’s as they were an inspiration to many seeing a family team do so well in the Adult race.
“We did really well on the kayak today, in and out. I was shouting at my dad the whole time as we were both really focusing on staying the same. Running was a bit weaker but the weather was nice so it was good,” said 14 year old Hugh Somerset, who with his father grabbed 2nd overall in 1 hour 27 minutes 53 seconds.
“It was a great race, a really enjoyable one. Loved the format and loved the course. We managed to get 2nd and this time we were right behind the winners. Fantastic spirit and thanks a lot to everyone for making it a great day as many people enjoyed it” said Antony Somerset.
Third across the line was Adrien Choux and Jerome Laboulais from Team Ultim8 Adventure Lafuma. “It was a tough race as the kayak was hard for us. So we arrived 5th or 6th after the first kayak leg, but made up and closed the gap on the mountain run and ended up back first at the beach and managed to finish 3rd so not to bad overall,” said Laboulais.
His partner Adrien said; “The weather was good, we could push quite hard on the climb. We got caught up on the kayak hard but the technique is not there yet so a couple teams took us, but quite happy with 3rd overall and we’ll definitely be back next time.”
Next across the finish line on the beach was last year’s Lantau TEVA winners with Romain Riche and Jinhwa Kim (HK Trail Runners) finishing in 1 hour 31 minutes 48 seconds with Jeremy Borne and Romain Rohee (Invader) finishing 5th overall in 1 hour 32 minutes 29 seconds.
Race 1 of the 6th annual TEVA Kayak ‘n Run series at Discovery Bay had a full entry list with 60 adult teams and 60 family teams with the adult race covering a 3km ocean kayak, 5km trail mountain running loop above Man Kok Tsui and 3km ocean kayak back to Nim Shue Wan, while the families had a 1.5km ocean kayak and 3km beach run at Nim Shue Wan.
Race 2 of the Teva Kayak n Run series with still has room for family teams at Deep Water Bay July 5.
The event could not happened without the valuable support of Teva, Action X Store, Otterbox, Ocean Potion, Gatorade, Digital Butter, OL&N,, Salonpas and the Action Asia Foundation.
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