 Olympic Champion and former XTERRA World Champion Hamish Carter starting the 2011 Motatapu Off Road Triathlon(Photo: Camilla Stoddart; click to enlarge) |
The spring-like conditions across the country might have been disastrous for the countries ski fields, but the organisers of the Motatapu event believe it has contributed to a record number of first-day entries for the March 2012 event, when entries opened last Friday 1 July.
"It might justhave kept peoples minds firmly on warmer weather activities," says Event Director Gemma Boyle.
"The spring weather here in Queenstown has certainly been keeping everybody on their bikes, with cherry blossom in the garden peoples minds are focused on continuing with their biking and running fitness through the winter", she says.
Gemma Boyle says the new start rules for the mountain bike sport field also rewarded early entries with a good start position. "Entries have been strong across all of the five events, including the new XTERRA Motatapu Triathlon, which is a qualifying race for the XTERRA World Championships", she says.
"Over a quarter of the Speight?s Traverse Mountain Bike field is now full, and as many people entered the XTERRA Motatapu Triathlon on the first day, as competed in the inaugural triathlon last year".
Numbers for the 42km Icebreaker Off Road Marathon were also strong, along with the Arrowtown.com 15km Mountain Run. "The first two teams to enter the demanding R&R Sport 49km Adventure Run were from Australia", she says.
Gemma Boyle says since the event started in 2005 the Motatapu Speight?s Traverse Mountain Bike has reached its maximum entry limit and usually closes off towards the end of November or in early December each year, but if entries continue to remain strong entries may close early this year.
The Motatapu comprises of five events held on the same day including; New Zealand?s largest off road mountain bike event, the third largest marathon to be held in New Zealand each year, a 49km high altitude two- person R&R Sport Adventure teams Race, the Arrowtown.com Miner?s Trail 15km mountain run and the XTERRA Motatapu Triathlon.
