Multisport—The New National Heritage

MULTISPORT—THE NEW NATIONAL HERITAGE BY ROB GREENAWAY AND ANNE WOODLEY t seems that every New Zealand for any distance. The need for kayaking dreamt of the Speight's Coast to Coast 12 town big enough to own a war skills, which cannot be gained in a gym, years ago. In 12 events Judkins has memorial also runs an annual have split the sport quite clearly from its encouraged and abused thousands of multisports race. The sport is a sibling, the triathlon. White-water is found outdoor athletes to complete the true New serious phenomenon of the late only in the heartland of New Zealand, Zealand challenge; running, riding and 1980s and has been called "rugby where multisport lives. kayaking, within one weekend-or one day in the hills" to qualify its popularity, for the hardcore—from one side of the and perhaps its heritage—- South Island to the other. although we wouldn't dare draw too many Even though the Speight's Coast to Coast parallelIs between rugby and multisport. is a basically a "guts and glory" race—with Multisport is as quintessentially Kiwi as is die big record-breaking prizes (cars) available rugby, but it is the realm of the New only to the male competitors—-Judkins stays Zealander of the 90s. A creature that is still at the finish line on Sumner Beach until all competitive, still proving him/herself in the participants have finished, offering even the wilderness, and still epitomising the pioneer slowest a handshake, a maniacal grin, and a spirit that brought both Maori and Pakeha to sponsor's beer. It's a heart-warming touch in an uncertain future in the antipodes. a sport that has gone from bush shirts and On the beach, Aklto Challenge. Defining multisport is a difficult exercise. obscurity to fluoro lycra and fame in just The purest would state that rnultisport is any Robin Judkins—love him or hate him—is over a decade. race involving kayaking, running and cycling the undisputed grandfather of multisports Judkins' legacy has not only been the or mountain biking—over any terrain and down-under. This eccentric Cantabrian first popularity of the sport, but also the standard 158 New Zealand Adventure Annual & Directory 1 995 of professionalism that many other multisport course from the Landsborough to Queen- Whanganui River and being welcomed into races feature. When a race is an event stown. the realm of the real New Zealand, it's a manager's livelihood, it has to be done well, Over eighty hours of televised coverage humbling race. and Judkins helped take backcountry events was beamed to Europe, with the result that Like the Speight's Coast to Coast, the same from the realm of club get-togethers to Kiwi multisporters like Anna Keeling became people keep on coming back year after year, sponsorable commodities, with big prizes more famous in France than at home. Hunt to find perhaps their lost youth, or at least ($60,000 in total for the Speight's Coast to has recently had problems with dwindling the ten minutes they lost the previous year. Coast in 1995) and a reasonable media entries because the original Gore-Tex- And to wail in the queue for the hangi presence. Fairydown Southern Traverse was too hard, chatting with the people they only meet The Speight's Coast to once a year, and to wade Coast now risks becoming in the Tasman Ocean with an overworked event very clear smiles of standard. It is one of the immense satisfaction—a very few multisport races ihing to behold and that turns a dollar for its something difficult to owner, and only one in an appreciate without actually ever-growing field of doing it. extremely good events. It Doing it in the provinces is also one of the very few really brings multisporl events—if not the only— home to the people. There that doesn't offer equal is a trend for remote prizes for men and women. regions, cities and towns The other significant to host multisport races multisports event in the primarily to help put them country is the Telecom 5 on the map. There is no Mountains to Sea. For a g lack of resources for an while it was the only three- I event in virtually any day race available, until g reasonably rural location Queenstown-based and the likes of Akitio and outdoors lifestyler Geoff Mountain bikers above Lake Pukaki in the Mount Cook Classic. Tuatapere have taken Hunt bit off two rather large advantage of theirs to mouthfuls by staging both the Southern and because his events have a reputation of create little slices of multisports heaven. The Crossing and Gore-Tex-Fairydown Southern focusing more on adventure than skilled Tuatapere Wild Challenge and the Akitio Traverse. The former showed some orig- management. After 1993 the Traverse was Challenge have saved two settlements from inality—besides being another crossing of pared down to last no longer than three days almost complete obscurity, and created the South Island (albeit over three days from and to not require any all-night exercise. fundraising opportunities for local projects— Haast to Dunedin)—while the latter grew The Telecom Mountains to Sea, in contrast, and some encouragement for permanent out of a French-styled Raid Gauloises is a heartland event. About 400 participants— tourism enterprises. international extravaganza called The Grand as individuals or in teams of two, three or Hunters should be warned however. Little Traverse. This ten day-and-night bone- four—run, kayak and cycle 297 km from the provincial events can be carnivores. The grinder had 40 teams of five from all over the flanks of the tallest landform in the North Tuatapere Wild Challenge is not called "wild" globe running, rafting, horse-riding, climbing Island—Mount Ruapehu—to the sea at for nefarious marketing reasons. The event and bleeding through a ten-day mystery Wanganui, following the course of the jswild, from the grade 3+ roller-coaster ride down the Waiaurahiri River to the epic 30km mud bath the organisers loosely call the run section. The race starts after a helicopter shuttle to Lake Hauroko—the deepest lake in New Zealand—and meanders past penguins, whales and dolphins back to Tuatapere (the self-proclaimed "sausage capital" of New Zealand). Teams of two are all that is permitted and only 100 entries are available. Breaking multisport into its disciplines gives you kayaking, running, cycling and mountain biking. Events which pick on just one of these activities, in the right environment, have often earned honorary multisport labels—if they feature some classic achievement, in good company, that is. For example, the faces that are seen at, say, the Speight's Coast to Coast, might turn up at the Kepler Challenge, describing the latter as a training exercise. Many kayak marathons are invariably inspired by an upcoming multisport event on the same river. As a result multisports has become a The beginning of a long journey from Mount Ruapehu to Wanganui in the annual Telecom catch-all term for almost any event in the Mountains To Sea. outdoors. Even the Big Coast—the country's premier series of fully-catered, overnight, non-competitive mountain bike events—is now often listed under the multisport label. The common theme is achievement in the outdoors with like-minded people. Mountain biking is perhaps the biggest winner—or contributor—-to the multisport world. Some would cry foul to think that mountain biking could be considered a subset of multisport. Their evidence would most likely be the Karapoti Classic—the off- road cycling event of the outdoors calendar. In 1986 about 40 riders turned up at the foot of Wellington's Akatarawa Ranges for one of the hardest mountain bike races imaginable at the time. The organisational skill, and dedication to the sport, of brothers Simon, Paul and Jonathan Kennett, saw that number grow to almost 1000 by 1994 and the Classic grow into a weekend of mountain biking events to suit all levels of ability. In 1995 they will be limiting entries to 800, for sanity's sake. While retail sales of road cycles has paled in comparison to the volume of off-road cycle sales (a ratio of 1 to 10), road cycling Competitors support each other across the Deception River in the Speight's Coast to Coast. has not died, and some dedicated road introduced to boost entries. On the grunt and mountain biked in about three weeks. events have paralleled the epic style of the scale this race gets a hefty score—hence the Steve Gurney and Kathy Lynch—the multisports world. low current turnout. This will no doubt undisputed King and Queen of Kiwi Take the Great Nelson to Christchurch change as the challenge becomes more multisports, took their respective titles, the Bike Race. About 35 cyclists do each year. widely known. Some multisporter will begin latter finishing after about 100 hours of Riders have 24 hours to cycle from Nelson a conversation with, "Well, last year at the cumulative competing. (starting at midnight) to Cathedral Square Great Nelson ....". and another five entrants The race hasn't been held since, but at (arriving around midnight), via Lewis Pass. will be gained. There is no end to it. least two different organisers are brave Look at a map and you will see that this is But then again, maybe there is. In 1990 enough to suggest that they'll be putting not a direct route—425 km in all. Individuals Robin Judkins staged the first multisport on another length-of-New Zealand race.

Load more