Event tests all-local team
Karen Markin and Andrew Young were delighted to be the first all-local team to cross the finish line in the major Breca Bay of Islands swim run event earlier this month.
The duo finished in 45th spot overall after completing the 33km course in 7 hours 9 minutes which also gave them 16th place in the mixed category. However, Markin, the well known local swimming coach of almost legendary status, laughed as she noted they were also the only all-local team in the event.
“We had prepared and trained very hard for this event, nevertheless it was extremely challenging and pushed us to our limits,” she said last week.
“We were delighted with our finish time and placing which was way beyond our initial goal — to just finish! Being the first local team over the line was the icing on the cake! We were touched and surprised by the number of family, friends and locals who turned out to cheer us on all along the course, from the start to the finish and the ‘lift’ we felt when we heard of names being called out had a significant impact on our performance and was greatly appreciated.”
Despite being given little fanfare, the major multi-sport event took place in the Bay of Islands on Sunday, April 15, and saw more than 100 elite endurance athletes hailing from New Zealand and around the world.
The Breca Bay of Islands started at the Waitangi Treaty Ground and linked a variety of mainland trails with six of the Bay’s islands, before the grand finish and party at the Otehei Bay Resort on Urupukapuka Island and was comprised of 25km of running and 8.4km of swimming, with 10 run stages and nine swim stages.
Spokesman Ben de Rivaz noted that being a ‘swim-run’, competitors raced in pairs wearing wetsuits and trainers throughout for the necessary transitions between running and swimming.
The two members in each team could never be more than 10m from each other during the day, and some even completed it tethered together. The BOI swim/run also had the highest ratio of swimming to running of any of the Breca organisation’s global series of events.
“While the run stages are comparatively short. They take place on challenging trails and bush paths . . . are technical and capture significant elevation.”
The winning team hailed from New Zealand, Gravelo (Steven Hurley and Matt Earley) who completed the 33.4kmm course in 5 hours 32 minutes. Two other New Zealand teams placed second and third, Friends of Flavio (Sam Clark, Bonnie Van Wildenburg) 5:51, and Foot Traffic Ex Swimmers (Moss Burmester, Rebecca Clarke) 5.59.
The event attracted a field of 132 two person teams although the results showed 113 completed while a further nine had no time recorded (a total of 122 teams). New Zealanders made up the majority of the field with others hailing from Ireland, US, Canada, France, Australia, Germany and the UK. Top-level athletes include Burmester, Olympics medal winner; Clark, three-time Coast to Coast winner; ex-All Blacks lock Ian Jones; Kayne Radford, a former winner of the New Zealand Ocean Swim series; and Laura Langman, former Silver Ferns vicecaptain.
Other BOI locals included Matt Randall who with Amanda Seymour (UK) placed 49th overall and 18th in mixed category in 7:12; Bill Miles with Janine Tito (Whangarei) 84th overall/ 37th in mixed category in 7:58; and Garth Brewin with Thomas Leider (Germany) 109th overall/ 43rd in men’s category in 9:32.
Other events on the Breca international series include the Breca Wanaka on March 18, Breca Gower July 6-7, Breca Buttermere August 11-12, Breca Jersey September 8, Breca Loch Gu Loch September 29, and Breca Coniston October 6-7.