Post Event Sports News Release – Adventure racing – Trail running
Race 5 – Bonaqua Action Sprint Discovery Bay – May 9
Ritcey and Koucha take series but not without good fight to the end
Hong Kong – May 9, 2010 – With an all time record of over 480 entered at Discovery Bay for the final race of the Bonaqua Action Sprint adventure race series Nadia Koucha wrapped up the series for the women, while Salomon team runner Jeremy Ritcey proving he is the Sprint Men’s champion 3 weeks after claiming the Men’s series title.
“It was fast and furious at the start as usual with Eric charging up the stairs. I stayed with him before Clement came blasting by me in the slippery river gorge. Smoked the big downhill (465m Lo Fu Tau) and closed the gap on Clement before the swim and think we both really suffered at the end as tough, completely dehydrated, should have drank more,” said overall Men’s winner and series champion Jeremy Ritcey finishing in 1 hour 24 minutes 10 seconds.
Just 2 minutes back was Clement Dumont who’s been out for injury all year. “Glad to be back and started off slow as didn’t want to get heatstroke like last year. Took Jeremy in the river and stayed in front setting the pace. He got by me after the swim and just tried to keep 2nd place as Eric was pushing hard behind and was getting quite hot”, said 2nd place Men’s Dumont finishing in 1 hour 26 minutes 15 seconds.
“Yeh it was great to see Clement out as I know he’s been injured. I was pushing hard on just trying to stay with Jeremy and Clement on the 1st hill, but a little more difficult hanging on to both of them on 2nd hill. Ran the best I could in the last section and just ran my own race at the end to hang on to 3rd” said overall 3rd finisher Eric LaHaie in 1 hour 30 minutes 59 seconds.
The Women’s race was without Juliane Rethfeldt who went into the final race with 1 point clear of Nadia Koucha, but as the series is determined by the best 3 results out of 5 with any tiebreakers being settled in the last race, all Nadia Koucha had to do was place in the top 2. However that was no easy task when one of the top Women adventure racers who has been busy looking after a child decides to start training and shows up.
“I did the beach run steady, tried to keep pace with the leaders, it was a steep 1st down descent into the gully which was pretty slippery. Was trying to keep momentum on the steep hill. Nadia came by me and I knew I had to go hard on the downhill to close the gap, managed to stick with her. Very tough, very tough” said overall race winner Jeanette Holmes-Thomson finishing in 1 hour 47 minutes and 23 seconds.
Less than 1 minute behind came Nadia Koucha claiming the overall Women’s series championship.
“Very hard race, I struggled a lot especially at the beginning. Thanks to Emma who caught me in the river and pushed me, I didn’t fall back. Very hot, very intense but happy overall,” said 2nd place overall Koucha finishing in 1 hour 48 minutes 22 seconds and finishes the 5 race series with equal points as Julianne Rethfeldt with one win and two second place finishes but wins due to racing in Discovery Bay one of the toughest races in the series.
Just 2 minutes back was Emma Bruce. “Toughest sprint I’ve done. I live in Discovery Bay so homefield advantage as know the trails well. Nice feeling getting to the top as a good breeze, quite tough at the end with the beach run as was so tired. Good race though”, said Bruce who finished 3rd overall in the Women’s in 1 hour 50 minutes and 38 seconds.
Participants started at the main plaza and for a 400m beach run before going almost 1 km up a staircase before a trail descent back to sea level. Then a 1.5 km river gully run over numerous waterfalls, rock scrambling sections before hiking up the 465m Lo Fu Tau. A quick technical 2 km trail descent down to the main reservoir for a short 20 m swim designed to cool their body temperatures before a 3 km cross country run around the golf course descending to sea level for another 2 km beach run more rock scrambling finishing with a waterfront run back to the Dbay plaza for 12 km.
More than 20,000 photos of past Action Asia Events with over 75 video clips are uploaded to the new website www.actionasiaevents.com
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Bonaqua Action SPRINT adventure race series
Race 1 - March 14, 2010 - 12 km - Repulse Bay, HK Island - 9am
Race 2 - March 28, 2010 - 12 km – Mui Wo, Lantau - 9am
Race 3 - April 11, 2010 - 13 km - Pak Tam Chung, Sai Kung - 9:30am
Race 4 - April 18, 2010 - 12 km – Tung Chung, Lantau- 9am
Race 5 - May 9, 2010 - 12 km - Discovery Bay, Lantau - 9am
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