Third in a row for Clark, first for Owen

HAT-TRICK OF VICTORIES: Whakatane’s Sam Clark on Saturday won the Coast to Coast World Championship Longest Day for the third year in a row. Pictures by Marathon-Photos.com

Whakatane’s Sam Clark made it three wins in a row while South African Robyn Owen claimed her first win in Saturday’s Kathmandu Coast to Coast World Championship Longest Day.

The hyped women’s race lived up to expectations. Owen, who was second in her first attempt last year, stormed through the mountain run and kayak to build a 20-minute lead heading into a nervous final 70-kilometre bike leg.

Coast to Coast winner in 2011 and 2013 and three-time world champion adventure racer Sophie Hart gained on Owen on the final bike leg but ran out of road. She finished second, three minutes and 50 seconds behind Owen’s winning time of 12 hours and 44 minutes.

In a close battle for third, Simone Maier finished ahead of defending champion Elina Ussher and Corrinne O’Donnell.

In the men’s race, Clark warmed up on the first bike leg, working comfortably in a breakaway of 11 riders that contained all the pre-race favourites.

The two-time winner got away with Australian Alex Hunt and Southlander Hamish Elliott on the mountain run as the three put some distance on the rest of the field.

Elliott was first to drop off the pace and then Clark put some distance on Hunt on the final climb to Goat Pass before descending into the Mingha Valley. Clark came out of the run at Klondyke with a three-minute lead over Elliott, with Hunt a further four minutes back.

In the kayak leg, Clark put the hammer down to be 18 minutes ahead of Hunt heading into the final cycle leg, and eventually won in a time of 11 hours and 14 minutes. Hunt was second, 30 minutes behind Clark, with another Australian, James Pretto, narrowly beating Kiwi Andrew Sclater to finish third, 10 minutes after Hunt.

Orienteering and adventure racing champion Chris Forne, who decided to enter the event only two weeks ago, was fifth, one minute behind Sclater.

In the two-day event, Oliver Thompson won the men’s individual event in 12 hours and 21 minutes, beating Mathew Clough by two minutes and 48 seconds, while Jennifer Walker claimed the women’s two-day individual honours in 13 hours and 12 minutes, 24 minutes ahead of Florence Van Dyke.

First and Last Out’s Ryan Kiesanowski and Nathan Peterson increased their overnight lead over Team Thule NZ’s Hamish Fleming and Samuel Goodall in the two-person men’s team to win in 11 hours and one minute.

Edge Team’s Morgan Ahu and Kathryn Bunckenberg won the women’s two-day event in 15 hours and three minutes, while Scrambled Legs Connie Dick and Todd Marwick were first home in the mixed two-day teams in 12 hours and 46 minutes.

Team Ruahine’s James McTavish, George Williams (of Gisborne) and Tim Taylor overcame a 17-minute deficit to peg back Greymouth High School trio Martin McDonald, Max Rubbo and Ben Williams and win the three-man team competition in 11 hours and 34 minutes.

Kim Marshall, Kaitine Hewitt and Rebecca Wilson of Did You Say Run increased their overnight 15-minute lead over Team Stuffed’s Olivia Caldwell, Suzanne Black and Deanna McKay in the three-woman teams event to one hour to win in 14 hours and 15 minutes.

TopSport Kayaking’s Sam Horgan, Daniel Jones and Kate Cambie won the mixed three-person teams event in 10 hours and 44 minutes — the fastest time for the 234-kilometre journey from the South Island’s west coast to its east coast. Theirs was the only time under 11 hours.

In the tandem competition, the Pecka Heads team of Ashley Christie and Josh Payne held on to their overnight lead to win the men’s race in 14 hours and six minutes, while Team Crap’s Shannon Proffit and Leah Barnfield, and Grimmett and Hamish MacKay from FLOORTJE won the women’s and mixed tandem races.