As the world is opening with new norms, adventure racing has begun with a bang with the National Adventure Race Series 2021 in Bangalore, Karnataka.
NthAdventure has successfully hosted Adventure Race 60 & 25KM as part of National Adventure Race Series 2021 on 27th February 2021 which attracted participants from Novice to Ultra Trail Runners, National Athletes to international athletes. This course was set for Day & Night, making sure all the teams experience a bit of Night Navigation.
The Course was hosted in the Nandi Grama and Headquartered at beautiful Satya Sports Village, our Venue Partner. The racecourse was designed to provide experience and test our athlete with Steep climbs, muddy road, tarmac, and farmlands.
The 60KM (NARS Series) race had participants with a mix of seasoned athletes as well as participants who raced for the first time. Race start was staggered and the Rogaining segment was the first with CP’s spread across the host venue followed by the 60KM course in the wild. 3 Teams made it to the finish line within cut-off time collecting all 7 checkpoints. However, other teams were short-coursed, to make it to the finish line. For 25KM category teams raced under Mixed, Men, Women categories and Solo. The main purpose of introducing the solo category is to encourage the sport and let everyone experience Adventure Racing. However, the Solo category is limited only to 25KM, encouraging them to have a Team to be part of all National and Asia Series.
The 25KM category flagged off at 15:40 hours and teams had 5 checkpoints to collect amidst disciplines like Tree climbing, Mountain Biking, Hiking, and Orienteering. Team "Veera Kannadigas" took 2nd consecutive win under the Mixed category, however, we had first-timers Team “Unexplored Mavericks” who took the win under Men Category.
One of the solo participants mentioned “I enjoyed this sport, especially being lost and navigating back on the course. It was a great feeling of reaching every checkpoint. Definitely waiting to get back with a Team to race the next course.” An all-women team “Wonder Women” mentioned “We haven’t experienced anything like this before and I don’t remember the last time we cycled for this long. All in all, we enjoyed it a lot and had some amazing time will definitely come back with better preparation”.
The 60KM race had a very tough and interesting competition between the top two teams. The organizers anticipated a sprint finish between “The French athletes” who were racing under team name as “Palm Meadows MTB” & the Home favourites “Skyrunners” who are top Ultra Trail Runners from India and they have been on the NthAdventure podium many times. The Palm Meadows MTB lost to Skyrunners at the very last CP due to a small Navigation error.
Commenting about this narrow loss Team Palm Meadows MTB said "The race was the first after the start of the pandemic and as well the first as a team with my partner. The race was more challenging than expected. Elevation was more than what we were expecting (1500m of gain) and had to push strong to compete with the Skyrunner team, it was really good competition. Over the first 6 CP, we were leading on 3 CP and the Sky runner team was leading on the 3 others. After 5 hours of the race at CP number 6 (over 7), the 2 teams were separated by only 2 minutes. We were feeling confident as it appears we were in better physical condition than the Skyrunner team. We forgot that AR is not only about the physical condition but as well about orienteering... We did a mistake in the last section and we had to do a lot of off tracking with the MTB, we lost a lot of time here. As a mistake is never coming alone, when we reach CP 7, it was starting to be night and we got lost a second time in the middle of the fields because we were not having a powerful enough headlight. Lesson learnt for the next AR and never forget that an adventure race is never finished before crossing the line.”
The winner of 60KM took 06 hours 3 minutes “Skyrunners” said “We enjoyed the Day and Night concept of racing and now realize why organizers emphasis was given for night and we experienced a little glimpse of expedition races. We wanted to cover as much distance during the daylight considering we got a tough competition from French athletes who have been trailing us from the start. We are happy we were the winners however we still would have been happy if we lost it to Frenchie’s, they worked hard to surpass us at last CP. Now we eagerly wait for other editions and happy to see the sport is growing.”
Mr Sayeesha Kirani, Race Director – NthAdventure says “This course was set for finishing in night and important as we are gearing up to launch the 24-hour course and building team for Expedition level Races. We wanted all the teams to experience racing in the dark before they are being thrown into complete 24-Hours and Expedition style Races. And we are happy that our teams successfully completed the 8 Hour course and experienced both the time zones”.
With its vast geographical features, India is a land where any challenging and exciting course can be developed. Now India has opened its gates for adventure racing focusing on creating more awareness and training through sprint and national series. NthAdventure will be hosting 5 Adventure Races as part of their National Adventure Race Series in various parts of India along with a National Championship, dates and locations are to be announced shortly. In addition to National Series, NthAdventure is gearing up to host 24-Hours races as part of ARWS ASIA Regional Races, where at the end of the India Series a top team will get to represent in the ARWS Asia Championship.
Ms Ajita Madan, Race director - NthAdventure says “We really hope, things get better, international travel opens up and we get to organize as well as participate as Team in other international races. We look forward to hosting these races in some of the raw and magnificent states of India. There are great brands that are supporting us like RED BULL INDIA, PEAK PERFORMANCE, ADVENTURE WORX, and organization like UnExplored Club, we look forward to their continuous support and having more brands and organization associating with Adventure Racing to grow this sport and the community in our country.
Big congratulations to all the winners and teams who came out in support of the sport and best wishes to the entire Adventure Racing community for the coming year.”
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