Adventure Racing World Series

The Adventure Racing World Series (ARWS[1]) comprises a number of expedition-length adventure races that push the world’s best endurance athletes to their limits[2] in a season of competition that tests their skills in a range of disciplines including navigation, trekking, mountain biking, paddling and climbing.

Format

Mixed gender teams of four competitors compete in a series of up to a dozen races held in locations spread across the globe. These races culminate in the staging of the Adventure Racing World Championships, the winner of which is crowned World Champions.

The competition's format provides that each of the individual events of the World Series function as a qualifier for the World Championships. The top two finishing teams in each event secure the opportunity to compete in the World Championships. The field of event winners and second place getters is then supplemented by the reigning world champions, who are given the right to defend their title, and a selection of wild card entrants round out the number of starters.

The actual World Championship race rotates each year. One of the qualifying events is singled out and designated as the World Championship event and this event provides a dramatic conclusion to the end of the World Series racing season.

In addition to the World Championship race, points are assigned to results from each of the qualifying races in the series to determine a World Ranking. Points are allocated on a teams best two results in a calendar year over a two-year period (with heavier weighting given to World Championship results), with the ranking cycle periodically refreshed every 4–6 months.

History

The Adventure Racing World Championship was the brainchild of Geoff Hunt and Pascale Lorre, long-time adventure racers who sought to "lend badly needed structure to the sport".[3] Hunt and Lorre's vision was first brought to fruition in Switzerland in 2001 where 41 teams contested the Discovery Channel World Championship with the controversy-plagued event eventually won by Finland's Team Nokia Adventure.[3] A team from New Zealand, including Kathy Lynch, came second that year.[4]

After a two-year hiatus the Adventure Racing World Championships was next held in Canada in 2004 and has subsequently been held every year since.

In 2011 management of the series was passed to the Australian company Geocentric Outdoors.[5] The 2011 World Championships - won by Thule Adventure Team - were staged at the XPD Expedition Race in Tasmania, Australia, where 90 teams drawn from 21 countries made for the largest starting field in the event's history.[6] This is testament to the fact that the World Series hosts the very best teams in the world and "continues to grow and become more prominent".[7] Geocentric Outdoors also instigated a number of new initiatives for the world series, including standardized equipment lists and logistics across the races, restrictions on mixed nationality teams at the World Championship race each year as well as the introduction of the World Series ranking system. These initiatives have encouraged larger international fields at the various races by lowing the logistical barriers for participation and rewarding participation in multiple events.

In 2012, the World Championships was held at Raid in France and were won by Team Seagate from New Zealand.[8] The title of World Champion returned to the Thule Adventure Team at Costa Rica in 2013, before again being reclaimed by Team Seagate in Ecuador in 2014. Despite having never won a World Championship, Spanish team Columbia Vidaraid held the number-one position in the World Series ranking through 2014 and 2015 due to their string of wins in World Series qualifying races in addition to their second-place finishes in the 2013 and 2014 World Championships. Seagate regained the top position in the rankings in 2016 after dominating at the incredibly demanding 2015 World Championships, held in the Pantanal in Brazil, as well as in the Shoalhaven area of Australia in 2016.

World Championship results

YearCountryRaceWorld Champion Nationality
2001SwitzerlandDiscovery Channel World ChampionshipsTeam Nokia Adventure Sweden
2004CanadaRaid The North ExtremeNike ACG Balance Bar USA
2005New ZealandSouthern TraverseBalance Vector New Zealand
2006SwedenExplore SwedenNike PowerBlast USA
2007ScotlandWilderness ARC[9]Nike USA
2008BrazilEcomotion[10]Orion Health New Zealand
2009PortugalPortugal XPD[11]Helly Hansen Prunesco Britain
2010SpainBimbache ExtremBuff Thermocool Spain
2011AustraliaXPD Expedition RaceThule Adventure Team Sweden
2012FranceRaid in FranceTeam Seagate New Zealand
2013Costa RicaCosta Rica ARThule Adventure Team France
2014EcuadorHusirasinchi ExplorerTeam Seagate New Zealand
2015BrazilARWS BrazilTeam Seagate New Zealand
2016 AustraliaXPD Expedition RaceTeam SeagateNew Zealand
2017USACameco Cowboy ToughTeam SeagateNew Zealand

2015 Adventure Racing World Series

RaceCountryDatesWinnerNationality
GODZone Adventure RaceNew ZealandMarch 2015SeagateNew Zealand
Tierra VivaChileApril 2015SAFATSweden
Raid GallaeciaSpainMay 2015Haglofs SlivaSweden
Expedition AfricaSwazilandJune 2015Merrell Adventure AddictsRepublic of South Africa
Expedition AlaskaUSAJune 2015TecnuUSA
Cameco Cowboy ToughUSAJuly 2015TecnuUSA
XPD Expedition RaceAustraliaAugust 2015Mountain DesignsAustralia
Raid in FranceFranceSeptember 2015RaidlightFrance
ARWS BrazilBrazilNovember 2015SeagateNew Zealand

2016 Adventure Racing World Series

RaceCountryDatesWinnerNationality
Maya Mountain Adventure ChallengeBelizeFebruary 2016Team Adventure Medical KitsUSA
GODZone Adventure RaceNew ZealandApril 2016Team Yealands Family WinesNew Zealand
Tierra VivaChileApril 20162 DSN 74 HokaFrance
Expedition AfricaSouth AfricaMay 2016Team Featherbed Painted WolfSouth Africa
Expedition GuaraniParaguayJuly 2016Columbia VidaraidBrazil/Spain/UK
Cameco Cowboy ToughUSAJuly 2016Team Adventure Medical KitsUSA
HuairasinchiColombiaAugust 2016FairisEcuador
ITERA Expedition RaceIrelandAugust 2016TEAM FMRFrance
Raid in FranceFranceSeptember 2016SeagateNew Zealand
Xtrail Expedition (Demonstration Race)ChinaSeptember 2016Thule Adventure Team Sweden
XPD World ChampionshipsAustraliaNovember 2016SeagateNew Zealand

2017 Adventure Racing World Series

RaceCountryDatesWinnerNationality
Expedition GuaraniParaguayMarch 2017CyanosisSouth Africa
HuairasinchiEcuadorApril 2017Terra Aventura – FinalinEcuador
Raid GallaeciaSpainMay 2017NaturexFrance
Expedition AfricaSouth AfricaMay 2017Skylotec AdventureSweden
Xtrail ExpeditionChinaJune 2017TBDTBD
Raid in FranceFranceJune 2017TBDTBD
Cameco Cowboy Tough World ChampionshipsUSAAugust 2017TBDTBD

References

  1. ↑ The Free Dictionary, 2011.
  2. ↑ Science Daily, 2011.
  3. 1 2 Swift, 2001.
  4. ↑ "Multisport: Heroes make a year of it". The New Zealand Herald. 9 January 2002. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  5. ↑ Sleepmonsters, 2011.
  6. ↑ AG Outdoor, 2011.
  7. ↑ Adventure Junkie, 2011.
  8. ↑ Explore Compete Live, 2011.
  9. ↑ Scotland, 2011.
  10. ↑ Xtreme Sport, 2008.
  11. ↑ Xtreme Sport, 2009.

Bibliography

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.