Action Asia finds its way in the dark

A somewhat reduced Action Asia Challenge got under way yesterday before dawn. There was some confusion in the darkness as teams lost time after missing race markers, and the general pace was much slower than expected with both winning teams clocking well over five hours.

Huge swell along the coast led to the original route being changed on the morning of the race, but despite these disruptions, the mood at the finish line was mostly jubilant.

This year, there were no clear favorites, with the exception of Team Equinox from Thailand, who have been regular participants in the race. But even they placed outside the top three. As it was, Team Trample, a mixed team from Canada, Malaysia and Singapore, came to the finish well ahead of the pack, but were disqualified, having missed the first check point. The fastest three-man team was Band of Mostly Brothers, from Hong Kong, who competed in the seniors category and came in with a time of 5 hours 47 minutes -- almost 20 minutes behind the winning two-man team of Hao Mao-1, made up of Taiwanese lifeguard Chen Hsin-feng and American rock climbing instructor Matt Robertson, who finished the course in 5 hours 25 minutes.

The emotional winners of the mixed team award was Baliyos, made up of national marathon athletes Hsu Yen-bin and Lai Hsiao-chun, and female running companion Huang Yiu-chin, who came in with a time of 6 hours 6 minutes. The open men's category was won by local team OB, who came in with a time of 5 hours 48 minutes, behind the seniors category winners Band of Mostly Brothers.

With fewer expatriates, local teams had a greater opportunity to shine, and proved that there really is a market for adventure racing in Taiwan. The mood was buoyant despite the confused start and almost all racers had nothing but praise for the technical sections along the cliffs, which included abseiling and Tyrolean traverse.

As a storm brewed up over practice exercises on Saturday, teams were confident that despite the dangers, they were looking forward to the challenge. Ultimately, a swimming and an ocean kayaking leg had to be cut from the race for safety reasons.

Organizers fell back on an alternative course that included river kayaking, so little was lost, and the massive surf pounding along the coast made for even more excitement.

The race got off to an inauspicious start in the pre-dawn of yesterday morning on cold and blustery Fulung Beach. After the competitors set off into the semi-darkness for a river run, they soon became disoriented and markers failed to direct the contestants adequately. There were complaints that marshals were not in place early enough or in sufficient numbers along this relatively easy section, and with competitors all pumped up to get off to a quick start, much time was lost.

Part of the problem was wind, which hid markers and blew out flares, but according to a senior event organizer, its also partly competitors treating the challenge too much as a conventional race and not paying enough attention to the map and clues provided them before the race. For those who missed the check point in the confusion, especially Team Trample, this was not much of a consolation.

The lack of marshals along this easy route was more than made up for by the presence of coast guard and rock climbers on the coastal sections, which presented abseiling, Tyrolean traverse, rock scrambling, a frightening cliff traverse and water jumps.