Something new
The newest category of New Zealand’s oldest multisport race will be hotly contested with three of the country's top individual athletes teaming up to take on the Kathmandu Coast to Coast One Day, three-person team event.
Just like the World-Famous Longest Day category, the three-person team will take on the 243-kilometre course on one day, but with each team member completing one discipline only, cycling, mountain running, and kayaking. The team also must be gender mixed, with the members choosing what discipline they compete in.
Captain of Team OSM, Hamish Elliott, who scampered across Goat Pass in just over 3 hours in a training run two years ago, will take on the gruelling Mountain Run. 10-time Queen of the Harbour Rachel Clarke set a record for fastest female on the day during the kayak stage last year and will look to repeat that form in the Waimakariri river. While former professional cyclist Louis Crosby has been given the task of getting his team off to a cracking start, before bringing the team home into New Brighton Beach.
“We thought we’d get some pretty talented athletes to sign up to this new category when we first came up with the idea, and this team has certainly reaffirmed that,” said Race Director Glen Currie.
“Hamish has been a regular Longest Day competitor, whose strongest discipline was the mountain run. So knowing he only has to concentrate on one discipline, I have no doubt he’ll set a blistering pace through Goat Pass. Louis’s pedigree speaks for itself, he’s been a professional cyclist, so he’ll be right at the front, and Rachel is the ultimate competitor. Last year was her first real experience in white water and in this type of boat and she was the fastest female paddler, so imagine what she’ll be able to do with a bit more time up her sleeve.”
“I love the Kathmandu Coast to Coast but dedicating enough time to train for the entire event is quite a challenge. But being able to compete in my favoured discipline and be part of the category for the first time is really exciting,” said Elliott.
“I cannot wait to race this new category,” said Clarke, “Hopefully this year if the flow is good and I have a good run I can have a good crack at the record!”
Experienced campaigners’ team earSHOTS will also be out to trouble the leaders, made up of Dave Jaggs, Ben Tallon and Helen Beattie.
Ben, who finished 13th in the elite men’s Longest Day last year, will take on Elliott in the mountain run section, while Jaggs, who’s donning the Kathmandu Coast to Coast bib for the 7th time, will line up against Clarke in the paddle section.
“Ben is a natural Mountain Goat,” said Jaggs, “he’s come in late as a replacement after our runner got injured, but he’s a very worthy replacement and will scamper across Goat Pass.”
“Helen is a time trialist. When I pitched the idea of 145km of riding broken into three chunks, with some short sharp runs she naturally jumped at the chance.”
Competitors in the new 3-person one day teams’ category will start 30 minutes later than those in the Longest Day competition, meaning their start gun is set to go at 06:30 on Saturday the 12th of February. After a 2.2-kilometer sprint off the black sands of the Kumara Beach, the cyclist then take on the 56-kilometre cycle alongside the Taramakau River to the foothills of the Southern Alps, where the switch is made to the runner. From there a 30.5-kilometre riverbed run which turns into a combination of boulder hopping and dodging the frigid waters of the main divide, reaching an elevation of 800m through Goat Pass before the start of their decent. A short 15k sprint awaits the cyclist who then links up with the kayaker who’ll navigate 70k’s of brains and gorge which separates the high country and the Canterbury plains. As soon as the kayaker rolls into the transition at the Waimakariri Gorge bridge it’s and all out drag race down New Zealand’s straightest road to the finish line in New Brighton to complete the 243-kilometre course.
