Thursday, December 3, 2009

Media Release: Teams are Ready and Set…

Abu Dhabi, Dec 3rd, 2009 - With the technical verifications completed, the 40 teams competing in the 3rd Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge are ready to take the start tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock for the first day’s racing.

This morning in the Rotana Park Hotel, after a team briefing covering the course, the 40 teams due to compete in the 2009 Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge went through the mandatory gear checks to ensure compliance with the rules and regulations prior to the race start tomorrow. However, two teams from France, ABU DHABI SPORTS COUNCIL-WILSA and VIBRAM SPORT 2000, spent most of the day worrying and waiting for their gear bags, lost in transit between airports, to arrive.

Titleholders QASR AL SARAB (NZ) sailed through the exercise with relative ease and were clearly confident that a third win was not beyond their capacities while their compatriots and last year’s second place team, ADCO (NZ), would have preferred a longer paddling stage, their forte, and no swimming at all.

Alongside a number of teams, for whom winning races of this stature holds no mystery, were teams of a lesser pedigree but equally eager to leave an early impression. Among them were CHINESE DRAGONS (CN), RAID IN (FRA) and the 2005 World Ironman Champion, Faris AL SULTAN, captaining a team of triathletes with ABU DHABI TRIATHLON or record-breaking, Polar explorer Adrian HAYES (ABU DHABI FALCONS).

The race begins at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning from the Corniche Beach with a 28.6km "triathlon adventure" programme involving biking, running, swimming and kayaking. Early afternoon, the teams will begin a 33km sea-kayaking section that will take them North through azure waters to an island bivouac where they will spend the first night

Live race coverage and information at www.abudhabi-adventure.com

No comments: