Adventure Racing World Championship 2016
The End of a Record Breaking Race
Rob Howard / 18.11.2016
The 2016 AR World Champs in Ulladulla wrapped up with the final closing ceremony and prize giving last night at the Civic Centre that has served so well as race HQ all through the race.
As teams gathered on the grass outside for a social get together ahead of formal closing ceremony, relaxing on their brightly coloured ARWS inflatable loungers, the final team of the race came in!
This was well after the course closure at 13.00 and the plan earlier in the day had been to pick them up, but there was a change of heart and they somehow managed to pick up speed on the final trek – setting a good time!
The finish line was down by this point and pizza oven put away, but it didn’t matter, they’d made it and arrived just in time for the evening meal (burgers all round). They were even stopped on the street just before they’d finished and been given a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates by some Ulladulla residents who’d followed their progress!
This brought the total of full course finishers to an amazing 77 teams, a record breaking finish total for an expedition adventure race, and something Nathan Fa’avae later commented on, saying it was a good thing for the sport. There were only 9 teams who retired completely from the course.
The race did have the biggest ever entry and in the speeches at the closing ceremony Louise Foulkes said it was a daunting organisational challenge, but one which was made so much easier by the team of experienced XPD volunteers who kept everything working so well.
To put things into perspective they estimated they lifted 48 tonnes of kayaks alone, moved more than a 1000 items worth over $2 million. No one could work out the maths on the cubic volume or miles driven ... they were all too tired! The finish line was kept open for 96 hours ... one hour longer than it took Seagate to finish the race.
There were many other thanks given too of course, especially to Destination NSW and Shoalhaven Council who welcomed and supported the event so well.
The night ended with the top 5 teams and category winner presented with their trophies (including ARWS monogrammed slippers for the Masters team) and Seagate were the last on stage to be presented as the first ever team to win the AR World Champs 3 times in a row.
It is an amazing achievement by Seagate, and by all the teams, and by the race organisation who pulled off such a successful World Championship race.
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