FOUR Gisborne athletes in the two-day Coast to Coast multisport race across the South Island set off from the halfway point of the 243-kilometre challenge this morning with the crossing of the main divide behind them and the Waimakariri River lying ahead.
Kim Hedley and Kimberley Cranston, Gisborne’s first tandemteam to tackle this event, were lying midway in the tandem field and the open mixed division of that event. Members of a tandem team cover the whole distance together.
They knocked out the 55km cycle to the mountains in 2:08, then ran through Goat Pass and over the range to Klondyke in 6:25. Ahead of them today they had the 67km kayak leg and 70km ride out to the coast at Christchurch.
Gisborne’s George Williams stormed through the mountain range yesterday. He ran for his three-man team and the results website showed his 3:27 across the divide had them going into Day 2 right up among the leaders in that division.
He was third-fastest overall and second-fastest in the open men’s division on the back of a third-fastest cycle time by his teammate.
Amy Spence’s partner in the two-person teams turned in the second-fastest run in the open mixed division, on the back of Spence’s 2:06 seventh-fastest cycle. Today Spence was on the river for the toughest challenge of her two days.
