HK expats top Action Asia challengers

Expat teams took top honors yesterday at this year's nail-biting Action Asian Challenge at Sun Moon Lake in Nantou County. The "Weekend Warriors" competition's favorites, Ford No-Boundaries, crossed the line in 4 hours 41 minutes taking first place and Gatorade Asia Non-Stop crossed the line to claim second place in 4 hours 42 minutes.

Third place went to ORBIS Green, also an expat team based in Hong Kong. Asia's best were the firemen of Hong Kong's Challenge the Limit who came in a respectable fifth.

"This is the first time we have entered the competition and I reckon to come fifth is a great achievement," New Territories-based firefighter Poon Fu-hing said. "It was hard and we know that next year will be harder, but we'll be back."

The Dassies, yet another Hong Kong-based expat team, took top honors in the mixed category with a time of 5 hours 25 minutes whilst the Fitness First Angels proved too strong for the other competitors in the women's category with a finishing time of 5 hours 47 minutes.

Taiwan's top team and local favorites, Kwanyang (觀陽), missed out on a place in the top 10 and had to make do with 12th with a finishing time of 5 hours and 46 minutes.

Organized by Hong Kong-based Action Asia magazine and heavily supported by the National Geographic Channel, the now annual event, which includes races in Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan, was first run in Hong Kong in 1998. The Taiwan leg of the event first took place in Fushing Township in Taoyuan County last year.

Unlike last year's race, when the heavens opened and competitors were forced to cope with a combination of heavy rain and difficult terrain, this year's event had competitors battling searing heat and, according to several contestants, tackling a much more physically demanding course.

"It was a beautiful and relentless course that gave us no breaks," said the Asia Non-Stop team's French member, Phillipe Guillo. "What really made it hard, though, was the constant pressure we were put under the entire course by the No-Boundaries team."

Over 200 "weekend warriors" set out on the 16.5km run, 14km mountain bike ride, 7km kayaking sojourn, 200m zipline ride and 300m row, which took them over Sun Moon Lake and its surrounding mountains, many of which still bare the scars of the 921 earthquake.

Taking an early lead, the Kwanyang team's hopes were dashed on reaching the kayaking stage. On arriving at the staging area, team member Sun Jin-lung (孫金龍) discovered to his and his team's dismay that his kayak was not fully inflated.

"We could have come well in the top 10 if not higher in the rankings if Sun's kayak had been inflated properly," explained an exhausted Lin Fu-cheng (林褔城) shortly after crossing the finish line. "This meant [fellow team member] Kuo Chung-chih (郭宗智) and I had to wait for extended periods of time while Sun played catch-up with us in his deflated kayak."

Though displeased with the circumstances that lead to his team's final position, Lin still had nothing but praise for both the course and the other competitors.

"The course was great, although I must say I thought the idea to use the roads was a bit odd," Lin said.

"But apart from the odd car passing dangerously close to us, it was a great race and offered us some marvelous competition. We'll definitely be back next year, when we'll be ready to finish with the top teams."