Team Air Macau took just under four hours yesterday to complete a punishing 30km course and win Taiwan's first international adventure race.
The race was dominated by the more experienced teams from Hong Kong, though Kuangyang Team (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The race started at a disused primary school in Gasenou (嘎色鬧), high in the mountains of Fuhsing township, Taoyuan County. Two-hundred-and-thirty entrants began the race, drawn from over 20 countries.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Contestants started warming up at seven in the morning, for the 10am start and were eager to get going while the ideal racing weather -- cool and slightly overcast -- held. Rain had been forecast for the afternoon.
From the outset the eventual winners, Team Air Macau -- comprising a Swiss, a Portuguese and a Britain -- were always with the leading pack and took over control of the race during the kayaking stage.
Ward Platt, director of National Geographic Channel and a member of Team NGC, who came in 14th, said the event had proved more challenging than the previous race in the series held in Hong Kong last December.
"Less than 5 percent of the course was flat and there was much more rope work than in Hong Kong. It required much more upper body strength," he said.
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), formally county commissioner for Taoyuan, was on hand to give the event her blessing, as were tribal elders of the local Atayal Aboriginal people, who held a rice wine ceremony before the start of the race.
Team Ironman from Thailand, winners of the Hong Kong Action Asia Challenge held in December last year, made the early pace, while the teams jockied for position over the 7km jungle run to the first checkpoint at Lahao Bridge (
But it was Team Kuangyang (觀陽隊) who surprisingly emerged ahead of the pack at the first media viewing point -- but from an unexpected direction.
They had taken the wrong route and by missing a section of the course and were threatened with disqualification. By looping back and rerunning a section of the course they kept themselves in the race.
Team Kuangyang lost time for their navigational error, but surged into second place at the second media checkpoint in Hsiao Wulai (
Team Kuangyang fought its way to the front, but lost a lot of time during the kayaking leg, from which they never really recovered. "We had difficulty controlling the boats," said Lin Fu-chen (
Team Timex, made up of mountaineers from National Chiaotung University (交通大學), said that the hilly nature of the course gave them some advantages.
"We picked up a lot of time on the jungle trekking and canyoning sections," said one member. The team, which had no previous experience in adventure racing, came third in the mixed team category.
On some of the more dangerous legs -- such as the 20m vertical decent by cargo net at a waterfall -- teams were held up for as much as an hour as some contestants balked at the difficulties. Taiwan Expedition (
Team Endevour from Hong Kong came in with a time of four hours 28 minutes, winning the mixed team category, while the first women's team, Schindler's List, finished in four hours 51 minutes. Kuangyang, despite being penalized, kept their winning position in the master's category, followed by Team Ironman in second for this category.
The extremely rugged terrain left most contestants with lots of cuts and bruises, but no serious injuries were reported.
Michael McComb, a first time adventure racer with Team Endevour, said the most important part for him had been working together as a team.
"You never give more than you take," he said, adding that balancing the various skills in the group had been crucial in securing first-place in the mixed category.
For Lin Man-you (林滿優), a member of Team Eco-Taiwan, whose team failed to meet the cut-off, just finishing the course was a victory of sorts. "It is a first step in Taiwan, so I was really happy [with the outcome]," he said.
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