On Saturday 27 March, 23 secondary schools from throughout South Island battled it out on the South Island Secondary Schools Adventure Racing Championships, which was held on a demanding course around the high country surrounding the Central Otago town of Cromwell.

The event which is in its second year is a partnership of Multisport Adventure Racing NZ, Southern Lakes Multisport and Sport Central.  The event has the title of top South Island team in three categories; Boys, Girls and Mixed, up for grabs.  The race’s favourites expected to perform well this year is the young team from KARAMEA.  The team has trained long and hard, and held fundraising activities to fund the purchase new bikes and for the long trip south.  The young team looked very composed during the race briefing, during which the secret course location was disclosed.  Also looking confident is the returning Lincoln High School Year 13 Boys team.  In the Girls category, the Dunstan High School team appeared tough to beat, with great leadership from the returning team captain Nakia Randle.  The mixed category is ripe for the taking with varying combinations adding spice to the category.

The race kicked off at 6:30am in slightly damp conditions which soon cleared as teams headed off from the Roaring Meg Power Station up into the high alpine region of Mt Pisa, climbing to 1475m past check point 2 before descending into the Lowburn Valley.  The Race Director, Bill Godsall had warned teams at the course briefing that the navigation choices here would be crucial and that was how it turned out when leaders, the experienced Karamea team chased hard by Otago team – Bayfield Blindside and three other teams opted to go right down the smoother route.  While following teams Hogg versus Wild, Dunstan High School Girls, Con Memento (Mt Aspiring College Girls) and Lincoln High School Year 12 opted for the left turn down the steeper pack track. This effectively decided the race as Hogg versus Wild lead, followed by Dunstan High School Girls, and Con Momento Girls checked into TA1 all within 14 minutes of each other while earlier leaders paid over 20 minutes for choosing the slower right side route, a decision which they couldn’t recover from.

On the next MTB orienteering leg, the front teams continued to battle it out.  Hogg versus Wild, Soggy Muffins (Mt Aspiring Boys) Lincoln High School Boys Year12, all only just narrowly holding out Dunstan High Girls and Con Momento with the first five teams only separated by eight minutes after five and a half hours of racing.  As the teams entered TA2, teams swapped their MTB for kayaks to paddle across a choppy Lake Dunstan to the abseil site.  The lake conditions became progressively choppy with every passing minute, forcing the Race Director to transport the remaining teams to the abseil site via rescue boat, effectively turning the event into a two categories race.  Eight teams completed the kayak leg before it had to be cancelled.  These teams then continued their battle onto the last MTB orienteering leg.  The remaining teams that had been short coursed continued to battle it out for short course honours.

Again, only a slight reshuffle of places occurred during the last leg of the event, with most teams surprising not only themselves but their support crews and staff who gathered for their arrival at the finish line in Cromwell.  First to cross the line was Lincoln High School Year 12 ,followed very closely by Dunstan High School Girls, who where showing awesome team work which helped them to win on the day, while Hogg versus Wild who were about ten minutes behind held on to third place.

Southern Lakes Multisport ran the event, and had set a great challenge for all teams to tackle.  The day went very smoothly, and once again, every athlete completed the course in less than 12 hours.  The team that performed well above expectation was without a doubt – the Lincoln High School Year 9 team – which included a 12 year old Nadia McGeachen who completed the course in 9 hour 6 minutes, placing her 16^th overall.

Overall results for the South Island Secondary School Adventure Racing Championships (teams that completed the full course.)

Boys:

1        Lincoln High School Year 12            7:10

2        Team Hogg versus Wild                  7:20

3        Team Soggy Muffins                        7:37

Girls:

1        Dunstan High School Girls            7:11

2        Con Momento

Mixed:

1        The Tarantulas (Mt Aspiring College)

Overall results from the short course (teams that were taken across the lake via rescue boat to the abseil site)

Boys:

1        Verdon College 2

2        Verdon College 1

3        Bayfield Blindside

Girls:

1        Team Pussy Willows (Mt Aspiring)

2        The Rashuns (Mt Aspiring)

3        Otago Girls’ High School

Mixed:

1        Team of the Red Dragons (Cromwell College)

2        Cool Cats (Cromwell College)

3        Lincoln High School Year 9