MULTISPORT: Bay ace gets his skates on

Shane Hurndell
Tutira's Christison became the first Hawke's Bay entrant to win the South Island's Speights Coast-to-Coast open men's individual title back in February. In recent years he has won the individual section of most of the races he has entered, including last week's Motu Challenge in the Bay of Plenty.
Today he travelled overseas for the first time to prepare for Thursday's start to the world's richest adventure race in Borneo - the Mild Seven Outdoor Quest, which will have $US255,000 ($NZ366,900) in prizemoney up for grabs. And for the first time he will be inline skating in a race.
"Yes, this is the first time out of the country. I've had offers to compete overseas before, including one with an Aussie team for the recent Primal Quest in the United States, but I've turned them down. This Borneo one was too good to turn down," he said.
"And the inline skating ... two weeks ago I started doing it along Napier's Marine Parade on a regular basis when I learnt it was part of the Mild Seven event," Christison said.
Christison was a late replacement for Canterbury's Keith Murray in the US-based Team Nike AGB for the Borneo trip. Murray withdrew through illness and, ironically, Christison was also ill (a crook guts to use his terms) yesterday and Sunday and unable to pull on the skates, but his health had improved this morning.
Team Nike AGB and New Zealand's Seagate are rated the best teams in the world. Team Nike includes former world mountainbike champions Michael Tobina and Michael Kloser and Danelle Ballengee, who is rated the world's best female adventure racer.
The five-day-five-stage 300km Mild Seven Outdoor Quest is made for American television. The 24 invited four-person teams race for four-to-10 hours each day before returning to a luxury hotel to "refuel and recover" as Christison put it.
"There's no over-nighters on this one," said Christison, who will be the only Kiwi in his team.
Seagate and Team Kiwi will complete the New Zealand flavour to the race which will involve mountain biking, kayaking (sea and river), inline skating, adventure skills, paddling, team biathlon and running. While the winning team receives $US46,000, there is also $US5000 at stake for the winners of each of the five stages.
The winning team should take between 25-30 hours. Teams can expect climbs of up to 4095.2 metres. Borneo is the world's third largest island. South East Asia's highest mountain, Mount Kinabalu, is expected to feature among the teams' "assignments".
Christison will return home on November 4 and a week later will join his Team Kathmandu team-mates for the Southern Traverse in Hokitika. They are Duncan and Hamish Hamilton of Hokitika and Taupo's Kate Callaghan.
New Zealand endurance racing fans won't be surprised if Christison arrives in Hokitika with another first placing - from the Mild Seven Outdoor Quest - on his CV.