Tenth Ironman on Sunday

Press, 21 October 1989, Page 32

Tenth Ironman on Sunday

By

KEVIN TUTTY

The multi-discipline endurance racing season has arrived, and the first major event of the year, the Fresh Up ironman, will be run near Queenstown on Sunday. This year is the tenth anniversary of the event, another brainchild of that architect of gruesome courses, Robin Judkins. The event started in the Wanaka district in 1980. It was the first multi-discipline endurance race in New Zealand and included kayaking, mountain running and ski-ing. After three years in Wanaka, Mr Judkins moved the race to the Mount Hutt area. A fourth discipline, cycling, was included and the move to a greater centre of

population produced a field of 66 in 1983. The event stayed four years in the Mount Hutt region before Mr Judkins made a switch to the Queenstown course in 1987. Eighteen hardy souls entered the first event on the new course, which started by ski-ing 750 vertical metres down Mt Arum, running 13km through Skippers Canyon, kayaking 20km down Skippers Creek, mountain biking 27km up the Moonlight Track from Arthurs Point past Moke Lake and down the Glenorchy Road before finishing in the Queenstown Mall. Last year the race had to be postponed a day because of bad weather, and even on

the Monday a hasty rearrangement of the course had to be made, excluding the ski-ing leg. The race was won last year by Steve Gurney, the runnerup in the arduous Coast-to-Coast race for the last three years. He headed home by five and a half minutes an old rival, Russell Prince. Both Christchurch men are back to tackle the course again on Sunday. Anna Keeling of Christchurch, the winner of the women’s section last year, will not defend her title. She has entered the Grand Traverse which starts on November 1 and withdrew from the Fresh Up event. Penny Webster from Cromwell, the runner-up last year,

should win the title for the seventh time in the absence of Keeling. The third-placed woman last year, Kathy Lynch from Motueka, has also withdrawn. She has been chosen in the women’s cycling squad for the Commonwealth Games. The race attracts a specal brand of person, that is obvious from personal resumes provided by the competitors. A selection include: “A couch potato enduring my fourth ironman.” “My wife told me I was becoming boring.” “Love to probe The Gap and chat to the fish.” “Only entered so I can play up afterwards." If the weather is unkind on Sunday the race will be postponed until Monday.