A multisport event featuring kayaking, cycling and running will feature in the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta on January 29.
Regatta committee chairman John Smart predicted a large turnout for the Herald-sponsored event.
"We are expecting about 300 entrants."
The president of the Waitemata Kayak and Multisport Club, Blair Roskruge, said the event would
be good for the sport.
"The concept of it is brilliant," he said.
"If we can get the public to come and see it, it could raise the profile of multisport events in Auckland."
Mr Roskruge said the sport did not have a high profile in Auckland because most of the country's major events, such as the Coast to Coast and the Southern Traverse, were held in the South Island.
He said the Anniversary Day event would attract some of the top names from multisport eventing, such as Oskar Stellay and national kayaking champ Simon McLaren.
The event will start at Harbour View Reserve in Pt Chevalier.
Athletes will then kayak to Te Atatu and follow the Whau River to Archibald Park in Kelston.
From there they will run to Blockhouse Bay Reserve before beginning the second kayaking stage, on the Manukau Harbour, to the Mangere Boating Club.
Competitors will transfer to mountain bikes and ride to Seaside Park in Otahuhu. A kayaking leg down the Tamaki River to Pt England Reserve will finish the event.
