Australian multisport athlete Alex Hunt is a late entry who will make his presence felt in the One Day World Championship Coast to Coast event on Saturday.
It will be Hunt’s first crack at the Coast to Coast but the Tasmanian is in red hot form after a dominating win in Wanaka's recent two day adventure race, the Red Bull Defiance, with Whakatane's Daniel Jones.
“It was a bit of a last minute decision but after Defiance I was speaking with Jarad Kohlar who had already arranged a support crew, boat, and flights for his partner but she no longer wanted to race, so everything was already in place, it was just too good an opportunity to refuse,” Hunt said. “I’ve always wanted to race the event so it’s just been a matter of sorting it out.”
 Alex Hunt(Photo: Alex Hunt; click to enlarge) |
Kohlar is spearheading a number of Australian entries in this year’s event and Hunt says he is hoping the form from Defiance carries over to this Saturday. “With such a short preparation I’m not putting a huge deal of pressure on myself. I’m going to try and get a feel for the course in preparation for next year, having said that I hope to have a bit of an impact on the race I’m still coming to race as hard as I can, it’s just that I haven’t quite prepared as I would’ve if I’d known six months ago I was going to race in it.”
Hunt said he had hear a lot about the event so was ‘pretty excited’ about finally racing. “I think the last time an Australian did well was Kris Clauson in the early 2000’s when he finished second to Steve Gurney. Kris actually lives about a five minute walk down the road from me and used to lend me a kayak when I was first getting into the sport. He was one of the first people I called when I committed and we’ve had a bit of a chat about the race and a few little things to remember.”
Without any great firsthand knowledge of the course Hunt suspects that the run suits him a lot more than the kayak saying he would have also liked more time on his time trial bike.
“From what I’ve heard from others I’ve figured out the race really comes down to how fast you can run and how well you paddle the river, both of which require a bit of knowledge. As an Aussie river paddling isn’t a big part of my normal training so I’m expecting it to be a bit of a weakness.”
He does add that there are some good rivers in Tasmania so has crammed in a bit of ‘last minute practice.’
“I also know the course goes over a pretty spectacular part of the world and so I’m naturally looking forward to the race from that perspective as well.”
Hunt has no hesitation to pick his favourite to be at the front of the men’s one day race, saying it’s impossible to look past Kiwi Sam Clark. “I’ve raced against him a lot in China and knowing how much he wants to win this race and how he’s prepared for it I think he will be on a pretty good level.”
