ARWC 2015 Brazil - Pantanal
ARWC Pantanal – Finished, Almost
Rob Howard / 21.11.2015
ARWC Pantanal is coming to a close with all the remaining teams finishing on the 7th day of the race, and as I write this darkness has fallen for the 7th night, with teams still coming into the finish line.
Hopefully the final Brazilian team Azimute (who are unranked) and the last ‘full course’ team, Estonian ACE Adventure, will to make it in time for the prize giving. (Let’s hope too they are not on the 4am shuttle in the morning.)
Teams have been finishing through the day and just before sunset Columbia Oncosec, SAFAT and Summit Adventure Team came across the line. Columbia were the first to arrive, struggling to paddle against the current and get under the finish arch in their kayaks, and once they were through Jon Ander collapsed in tears. He said the team had to push hard all the time to get to the end and had been at their limit throughout.
The Swedish Armed Forces team followed soon after, celebrating with raised paddles as they crossed the line in the evening sunlight. Although they finished behind Columbia they were celebrating 3rd place as Columbia (and the Estonian team) received 12 hour penalties for getting help in an emergency situation via Yellowbrick tracker messages. (They were lost on the long pack raft stage and appealed for help, and were then given some directions to get back on track to ensure their safety.)
Malin Hjalmarsson of SAFAT said, “The long pack raft was really tough, but it was also one of the most beautiful and different stages of the race. The problem was it took so much longer than all the race estimates, sometimes 50% longer, so we ran out of food. We didn’t expect to be out for 7 days!” And that was the team who finished 3rd!
The Summit Adventure Team from Colombia arrived on bikes just before dusk, to more tears and celebrations and presently we are awaiting the arrival of the Estonian team and the start of the race prize giving to end a memorable week of racing.
SleepMonsters
