One of the first pairs into the water and in the lead after emerging from the tunnel, local favorites Suen and Chen were clearly determined to win. You could see how pumped they were by the way they tackled the first mountain on their bikes, at top speed.
All went well until they arrived at Suwei Beach to make the transition to kayak, when a mistake cost them the lead to the Asia Miles team.
The successful and seasoned Action Asia campaigners took advantage and powered off toward the larger island of Kinmen, though Taiwan Exustar held on gamely.
Though a mistake by marshals allowed Taiwan Exustar back into the race, they could not hold on under the relentless pressure of Asia Miles and gave up the lead for good in the tunnel section when they went the wrong way.
Action Asia is the continent's largest one-day adventure race in what is often quoted as the fastest-growing team sport in the world.
Competitors race in teams of two, in various age and sex categories. The youngest racer in Kinmen was 21 and the oldest 62.
Adventure racing began in New Zealand with coast-to-coast races in the 1980s. The sport hit the big time in 1995 when ECO-Challenge was staged in the US. It became a wildly popular televised event on Discovery Channel, and the first Action Asia event was held in 1998 in Hong Kong.
Profits from the Action Asia Challenge are donated to a nonprofit organization that helps the region's underprivileged youth.
RSS