Gisborne four take on Coast to Coast

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

FOUR Gisborne athletes are on the long road to Kumara Beach on the West Coast today for the Coast-to-Coast multisport race across the South Island, and two will complete the whole crossing.

From dawn on Friday, Kim Hedley, Kimberley Cranston, Amy Spence and George Williams will spend the next two days on a west-to-east traverse to New Brighton Beach in Christchurch, the finish line of the famous 243km race.

It is the first appearance in the C2C for the two Kims and the first big challenge of its kind for Cranston.

Each will complete every leg but as a tandem team, entered in the mixed open tandem teams division of the two-day event.

This means they cover the course together — not in a relay — and must stay close together This includes paddling the 67km Waimakariri River kayak section in a two-person kayak.

They have done the training. Now they are looking forward to enjoying the reward.

Their build-up race was the Motu Challenge multisport race, where they were second in the mixed fours section as a three-person team with Hedley’s brother Dave, despite Kimberley suffering a heavy crash on the road bike.

They headed for the South Island in November for a guided recce trip on the river and a run over part of the mountain trek.

They are heading south today with a family back-up crew.

The Kims will be the first Gisborne pair to do the C2C as a tandem team.

Amy Spence and George Williams competed in the race last year. Spence laid down the 22nd-fastest time by a team kayaker, putting her close to the fastest third of the field.

As an individual, Williams was 12th open man in the 2017 solo two-dayer, producing the third-fastest run through the mountains in 3hrs 54mins, a performance that put the Gisborne farmer among the race leaders on day 1.

“I would love to do that run again,” he said after last year’s race.

He will get his wish as the team runner in a three-man open team with friends Tim Taylor and James McTavish.

Since the C2C last year, he has run through Whinray Reserve for the winning four-man team in the Motu Challenge, which included kayaker Taylor.

Spence also figured prominently in the Motu last year as a kayaker and cyclist when she and Nan Baker won the women’s race by a huge 90-minute margin.

She is in the C2C as the kayak and day-one cyclist with South Islander Graham Anderson as a two-person mixed team.