It’s not often a father has to choose between two daughters but Tom Clark had to make the call on which support crew to join – with daughter Sonya racing in the Powered by Velvet team and Sarah competing in the Icebreaker R & R Sport team. How did he decide? Simple – Sonya asked first!”
FAMILIAR FACES
A Southern Traverse wouldn’t be the same without Jenny Day and Bryan Otty – the event’s longest serving volunteer officials. They’ve been parked up in their camper van at several transition areas and the coffee’s always brewing – a welcome oasis for anyone in need- particularly after a cold paddle!
WAYNE’S WORLD
Long time Southern Traverse management member Wayne Allen almost opted to spend the night in the hills on Friday after struggling to find a route out in the fog from his checkpoint on the mountain trek in the Maukuratawhai. He eventually emerged from the gloom –“after taking three and a half hours to get out compared to two hours going in!”
BRING HOME THE BACON
The Icebreaker R & R Sports team has two new support crew who have been spoiling them rotten! The team arrived in to the transition area from the Mt Garfield trek to the smell of frying bacon! Guess who is likely to be invited to be on the permanent support team!
Note on Leaderboard
The leaderboard is a reflection of the placings of teams, rather than the actual times they have been through checkpoints. This is due to the added penalties of day one and the stop and start nature of this year race. Final results will be posted in a downloadable pdf form later on.
The Fairydown Southern Traverse at Hanmer Springs has been won by the experienced North Island based Powered by Velvet team, just over two hours ahead of their closest rivals, Icebreaker R & R Sport
As the winning team Powered by Velvet has gained an entry into the prestigious Adventure Racing World Championships in Brazil in August....
The crack North Island team Powered by Velvet led the way into the final stage of the 24hour section of the Fairy Down Southern Traverse at Hanmer today....
The two man team, Currie Brothers, proved that fresh legs have an advantage when they led the trekking stage in the Mt Garfield area through the night and arrived on target, neck and neck with Powered by Velvet on the kayaking leg....
Teams had to cross a narrow one man swing bridge in darkness before heading into the Mount Garfield area at midnight last night for a 15km mountain trek to start the 24 hour stage of the race....
