Coast to Coast will put 360 to the test

Press, 17 January 1986, Page 20

Coast to Coast will put 360 to the test

Three hundred and sixty competitors with ages ranging from 15 to 62 will line up at dawn on the beach at Kumara on February 1 for the fourth Steinlager Coast-to-Coast endurance contest.

The two-day multi-discip-line event involves 145 km of cycling in three stages, 26km of mountain running across the Main Divide, and 67km of whitewater kayaking through the Waimakariri River Gorge.

It starts at Kumara on the West Coast, and finishes at Sumner Beach. Of the 360 competitors, 160 are competing as individuals and 200 in two-person teams.

Among the entrants are nine competitors from Australia, five from the United States, and one each from Japan, Canada and France. The oldest competitor is Bob Hunt, a 62-year-old general practitioner from Belfast, who is competing for the third time.

In 1984, Hunt won the veteran teams’ section with his partner, Bill Kennedy, aged 48. Since then Hunt has been competing as an individual.

The oldest family team is that of Don Stewart, aged 35, and his father, Sam, aged 61. The younger Stewart won the open teams section with his partner, Hans Stegehuis, in 1983.

The youngest competitor is Elliott Fuller, a Christ’s College pupil, aged 15. He will comoete with his

father, Wayne Fuller, a Masterton chemist, aged 40, in the family teams section. This is the second time they have competed in the Coast-to-Coast.

Favourites for the individual open section are John Howard, of Christchurch, Brain Sanders, of Wellington, and Greg Dobson, of Cust. Howard is a four-times winner of the Fresh-Up Iron Man contest, won the Coast-to-Coast individual title in 1984, and the team event with his partner, Erik Saggers, last year. Although the hardy Howard broke his arm “fooling around on a mountain bike” two days before Christmas, the injury has not stopped his training. “I’m hoping to do pretty well,” Howard said this week.

Last year, Howard competed in the Coast-to-Coast less than two weeks after a painful tumble from his bicycle on the Summit Road, which left him with a badly skinned back and arms.

Dobson, aged 25, is a consistent performer in the event, finishing runner-up to Sanders in the 1985 individual section, and fifth the year before.

The record for the event is held by Sanders, who had a time of 12hr 26min 23s in winning last year. Sanders, aged 32, was placed seventh in 1984.