Course for endurance event toughened

Press, 19 December 1989, Page 42

Course for endurance event toughened

The course for what is being billed as the world’s most gruelling endurance race has been made even tougher. The Organiser of the Xerox Challenge, Robin Judkins, completed a practice run of the course late last month, and has altered the route that contestants will take. The Xerox Challenge is a 22-day cycling, canoeing, and running marathon that will take 50 national and international competitors from Cape Reinga to Bluff. The race director, Mr Judkins, is also the man responsible for the Coast to Coast and Iron Man events. The Xerox Challenge is an official New Zealand 1990 event, which he has devised to test competitors to their utmost in New Zealand’s most challenging and spec-

tacular terrain. “Following our ‘recce,’ the course for the challenge is now 69km shorter, but several days are much harder. Each leg of the course is now as direct a line as possible from origin to destination, so there is much more tough cross-country work, both on foot and mountain bike,” Mr Judkins said. “Originally, some days had seven hours of competition and others five hours. The race now averages six hours of competition per day for the top competitor. “Competitors will have to be excellent at all three disciplines — running, cycling, and canoeing. They will have to have superb orienteering skills as well,” he said. “They must be confident

about competing in fairly difficult weather conditions. The most challenging sections of the race will be the traverse of Mount Ruapehu, where white-out conditions are not unusual at that time of year; and the kayak crossing of the Cook Strait, where conditions can change from favourable to treacherous in minutes.” Mr Judkins reconnoitred the course with the chief Xerox Challenge mountain safety official, Peter Tocker, and the assistant race director, Garry Ebeling. The Xerox Challenge will be contested from sunrise on November 1, 1990, finishing in Bluff on November 22. The event is open to 50 individual competitors — 40 New Zealanders and 10 invited international athletes — and 15 three-member teams.