A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
by Dave Conway
There was no storybook ending this time for Wairoa’s Sam Manson in his bid to defend his world multisport title at the 42nd Coast to Coast race on Saturday.
Overtaken for third on the final stage, cycling across the Canterbury Plains to New Brighton Beach, he missed a spot on the podium by just two minutes after 11 hours of supreme effort
. . . finishing fourth in the epic Longest Day race across the South Island.
While the final chapter did not read ideally for the man wearing race bib number 1, further back in the story he was the fastest individual competitor on the 70-kilometre kayak leg by nearly five minutes as he charged in pursuit down a blustery Waimakariri River in his specialist discipline.
It was reminiscent of the years Sam Manson spent as the nearly man, falling just short of outright C2C victory until his pinnacle performance in 2023. But taking into consideration the setbacks following that result a year ago, it was a great performance by the Christchurch-based elite athlete . . . and his ninth top-10 finish in this world championship event.
Hurrying home to help his cyclone-flooded Wairoa parents, months of indecision as to whether he would do the C2C again, racing in China that left him exhausted and run-down with a stomach infection, then a virus in November-December, all resulted in just a six-week training block to prepare for Saturday.
“My build-up was not great but I felt I had one more in me,” he said before the event.
“I love this race and the people involved down here. I started training late but it went really well and I am in pretty good shape.”
Whether he would race the C2C again had crossed his mind but he hoped his fitness would pull him through.
“I want to race. That's why I'm back. It's because I enjoy the fight to do your absolute best on the day. I would not have spent the past 10 or 12 years any other way.”
At the finish line 11 hours 4 minutes and 39 seconds after the gun at Kumara Beach on the West Coast, he reflected on the time he lost in the mountain run, suffering cramp, making up time on the river, chasing hard to move into third place and then getting passed on the bike — “I suffered a bit”.
Race splits are the tale of the tape in multisport racing, and his run through the Southern Alps set Manson a catch-up chase to try to pull back the six men ahead of him.
With cramp affecting him, he was behind by up to 18 minutes to race leader and eventual winner Hamish Elliott. Six hours into the race, the tracking system logged him at more than 5km off the lead.
On the river he was nearly five minutes faster than Elliott and took 13 minutes out of ironman athlete Ben Phillips, with whom he had a lengthy scrap to move up to third. But Phillips, the stronger cyclist, later reeled back seven of those minutes on the bike, enough to finish behind second-placed Alex Hunt of Tasmania.
One of the fastest C2Cs on record, it saw the top five elite men complete the 243km race across the country within an 18-minute period . . . from Elliott’s 10hrs 48m 53s to Ryan Kiesanowski’s 11:06:6 in fifth.
* Further down the order, five Gisborne men were among those in the Longest Day field who faced near-perfect conditions and a tailwind for the 70km cycle to the east coast, only to see it replaced by an ugly headwind with rain, which slowed competitors considerably.
Connor Shivnan had a strong race to finish 16th in the open men, 18 to 39 years, and 39th solo male overall, in 13:16:58. His mountain run, kayak and cycle splits were 4:02, 4:45 and 2:08.
George Williams, a past competitor in the two-day race, was 42nd in the 18-39 section and 85th solo male overall, in 14:31:1. His run, kayak and cycle splits were 3:58, 5:20 and 2:39.
Henry Gaddum finished 57th in the 18-39 section and 107th solo male overall, in 14:55:47. His run, kayak and cycle splits were 4:02, 5:26 and 2:43. Tom Gaddum finished 81st in the 18-39 section and 168th solo male overall in 16:19:15. His run, kayak and cycle splits were 4:58, 5:45 and 2:45.
Simon Bousfield finished 46th in the veteran 40-49 age group and 178th solo male overall in 16:45:45. His run, kayak and cycle splits were 4:07, 6:26 and 3:31.
In the two-day event, Sam Gemmell was 49th in the 18-39 age group and 67th solo male overall in 15:19:29. His run, kayak and cycle splits were 4:45, 5:32 and 2:19.
* Four-time women’s elite world champion and top seed Simone Maier made it five, in doing so equalling Kathy Lynch’s win record from the 1990s. Maier finished in 12:31, 17th overall in the solo field.