> photos by Michael Jacques
A former Olympic skier ushered in a new era at the Speight’s Coast to Coast today when Queenstown’s Richard Ussher totally dominated the 243km world multisport championship across New Zealand’s Alps.
One hundred and seventy athletes from 14 countries lined up on Kumara Beach on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island this morning. But unlike the extreme heat that greeted the start of yesterday’s people’s race, the world championship event was greeted by ground level fog rolling off the Tasman Sea. But in the next few hours the world’s oldest adventure race would heat up, both literally and metaphorically.
The dense fog and a field full of stars made for a tentative start to the race. The initial 3k run from the beach to bike racks was typically frantic and provided an early lead bunch of about 40 riders as the race moved into the opening 55k road cycle to the foot of the South Island’s Main Divide. With all the main contenders in the lead bunch, no one was willing to become a donkey in this draft-legal cycle.
The sedate and uneven pace soon saw the leaders joined the following two bunches and a massive bunch of almost three-quarters of the field rolled into transition for the 35k run across Goat Pass. Late entry and former Commonwealth Games marathoner Phil Costley took an early lead, his fast pace splitting the field in the first 3k. Costley opened up three minutes as the race crested Goat Pass, but shortly after he would twist an ankle on the tricky descent and by the end of the run Ussher was in control with Auckland’s Ross Rotheram tucked in behind.
Behind them the field straggled in, ripped apart both by Costley’s early pace and the extreme heat that had developed during the run. Gordon Walker and Tim Pearson benefited from a conservative run up Goat Pass to move from seventh and eighth place at the top to end the run third and fifth, with Costley hobbling in but still in fourth.
The surprise at this stage was the absence of defending champion George Christison. The Napier curator was expected to go toe to toe with Ussher over the mountain run, and Ussher later revealed that his race plan revolved around keying off Christison. But a recent virus left the defending champion walking over Goat Pass to eventually withdraw on the banks of the Waimakariri River.
Christison’s withdrawal left New Zealand out of the running for the World Team Challenge, the three-person team category in which the individual placings of a country’s best two men and one women are combined to find the world’s top multisporting country. Countries must elect their teams, so Christison’s withdrawal gave the team title to arch-rival Australia, which placed Kris Clausen and Guy Andrews in seventh and 14th and Narelle Ash in tenth among women.
But it was very much New Zealand’s day, with Kiwis Richard Ussher and Kristina Anglem winning the men’s and women’s races. Ussher and Anglem are teammates on Seagate.com, one of the world’s best adventure racing teams, so to open up the year with a win in the world’s biggest individual event bodes well for Seagate’s year ahead.
Both later revealed similar race plans of simply executing their own race and not getting too carried away with what the competition was doing. “I’ve lost this race before by trying to race people instead of looking after myself,” Ussher would later say. “So this time I was determined to run a conservative race and save something for the final stages.”
Historically, the Speight’s Coast to Coast world championship has been won and lost in the final third of the race. In past attempts Ussher, a former Olympic freestyle skier before taking up multisport in 1998, had been a contender only to fall back in the closing stages. This time he simply raced as he felt, trading blows with Rotheram through the run and the short 15k cycle between the run and kayak sections before opening up a huge 15-minute lead on the 67k paddle down the Waimakariri River.
With just the 70k road cycle into Christchurch standing between Ussher and victory, the race appeared won. But the 28-year-old was conscious of another Aucklander, former national-class cyclist Gordon Walker, closing fast. “Gordon’s a really strong cyclist,” Ussher would say later, “so I was conscious that I couldn’t relax. I was giving it about 90 percent; just leaving a little bit in case I had to really hammer home.”
But it was a relaxed winner who crossed the line in front of a packed Sumner Beach, stopping the clock at 11:44:07, nine minutes ahead of Walker, who had powered past Rotheram on the last cycle. “Ever since I took up multisport I’ve dreamed of winning this race,” said a clearly emotional Ussher on the line. “It’s taken me seven years, so it feels great to finally do it.”
Also powering across the Southern Alps was Kristina Anglem, who won her second straight Speight’s Coast to Coast world championship to finish an incredible sixth overall. Anglem led from start to finish and commented at the finish line, “I just had the perfect race. I felt great and everything went exactly as we’d planned.”
In a large part Anglem and Ussher dominated the day because they handled the oppressive 30-degree heat better than anyone else. “I heard how people had suffered in the heat in the Two-Day race yesterday,” Anglem said. “So I made sure I drank as much as I could and just focused on running my own race.”
Anglem’s “own race” turned out to be 44 minutes too good for any other woman. She crossed the line in 12:40, with Alexandra’s Sally Fahey finishing second, eight minutes ahead of Canada’s Emily Miazga and New Zealand surf lifesaving rep Andrea Hewitt.
Earlier in the day the world champion combination of Jonathan Wyatt and Ben Fouhy overcame their overnight deficit to win the Speight’s Coast to Coast Two-Day teams race.
Wyatt, the four-time world mountain running champion, and Fouhy, the world kayak champion and Olympic silver medallist, ended the first day in second place after former team winners Michael and Graeme Causer turned the tables on the race favourites. But today Fouhy gave Wyatt a huge lead after he kayaked more than 15 minutes faster than anyone else, and Wyatt then surprised with a strong cycle to be first in to Sumner in 10:51:33, almost 18 minutes ahead of the Causer brothers and missing their 1993 team record by just 37secs despite the record heat of the weekend.
In other Two-Day races Christchurch athletes Luke Vaughan and Katrine Lawton totally dominated the individual races, while former
four-time winner of the world championship, Jill Westenra, was part of the winning mixed team with Auckland’s Mark Beesley.
Speight's Coast to Coast
Kumara to Sumner, New Zealand
Friday, February 4-Saturday, February 5, 2005
Provisional Placegetters
World Championship Men
1) Richard Ussher (NZL) 11:44:07
2) Gordon Walker (NZL) 11:53:23
3) Ross Rotherham (NZL) 12:06:49
4) Richard Greer (NZL) 12:23:39
5) Tim Pearson (NZL) 12:26:59
World Championship Women
1) Kristina Anglem (NZL) 12:40:34
2) Sally Fahey (NZL) 13:24:51
3) Emily Miazga (CAN) 13:32:04
4) Andrea Hewitt (NZL) 13:58:02
5) Anna Berthelsen (NZL) 14:29:14
Individual Men Two-Day
1) Luke Vaughan (NZL) 11:41:16
2) Cameron Carter (NZL) 12:13:29
3) Duncan Hamilton (NZL) 12:35:24
4) James Richmond (NZL) 12:35:53
5) Jonathan Cleine (NZL) 12:41:07
Individual Women Two-Day
1) Katrine Lawton (NZL) 13:15:26
2) Fleur Pawsey (NZL) 13:54:40
3) Lynne Potter (NZL) 14:04:47
4) Michele Allison (NZL) 14:35:50
5) Kirstine Collins (NZL) 14:44:40
Teams
1) Ben Fouhy, Jonathan Wyatt 10:51:33
2) Graeme Causer, Mike Causer 11:09:26
3) Robin Wilson, Simon Yarrell 11:48:54
4) Jill Westenra, Mark Beesley (mixed) 12:03:03
5) Brendon Metcalfe, Aaron Chambers 12:13:17
6) Brad Williams, Steven Dingwall 12:21:24
7) Gary Glasson, Patrick Sweeney 12:30:03
8) Ian Walsh, Peter King 12:38:25
9) Philip Evans, Benjamin Nilson 12:39:05
10) Dave Rudge, Graham Sinnamon (vet men) 12:45:56
Complete Results
The dense fog and a field full of stars made for a tentative start to the race. The initial 3k run from the beach to bike racks was typically frantic and provided an early lead bunch of about 40 riders as the race moved into the opening 55k road cycle to the foot of the South Island’s Main Divide. With all the main contenders in the lead bunch, no one was willing to become a donkey in this draft-legal cycle.
The sedate and uneven pace soon saw the leaders joined the following two bunches and a massive bunch of almost three-quarters of the field rolled into transition for the 35k run across Goat Pass. Late entry and former Commonwealth Games marathoner Phil Costley took an early lead, his fast pace splitting the field in the first 3k. Costley opened up three minutes as the race crested Goat Pass, but shortly after he would twist an ankle on the tricky descent and by the end of the run Ussher was in control with Auckland’s Ross Rotheram tucked in behind.Behind them the field straggled in, ripped apart both by Costley’s early pace and the extreme heat that had developed during the run. Gordon Walker and Tim Pearson benefited from a conservative run up Goat Pass to move from seventh and eighth place at the top to end the run third and fifth, with Costley hobbling in but still in fourth.
The surprise at this stage was the absence of defending champion George Christison. The Napier curator was expected to go toe to toe with Ussher over the mountain run, and Ussher later revealed that his race plan revolved around keying off Christison. But a recent virus left the defending champion walking over Goat Pass to eventually withdraw on the banks of the Waimakariri River.
Christison’s withdrawal left New Zealand out of the running for the World Team Challenge, the three-person team category in which the individual placings of a country’s best two men and one women are combined to find the world’s top multisporting country. Countries must elect their teams, so Christison’s withdrawal gave the team title to arch-rival Australia, which placed Kris Clausen and Guy Andrews in seventh and 14th and Narelle Ash in tenth among women.
But it was very much New Zealand’s day, with Kiwis Richard Ussher and Kristina Anglem winning the men’s and women’s races. Ussher and Anglem are teammates on Seagate.com, one of the world’s best adventure racing teams, so to open up the year with a win in the world’s biggest individual event bodes well for Seagate’s year ahead.
Both later revealed similar race plans of simply executing their own race and not getting too carried away with what the competition was doing. “I’ve lost this race before by trying to race people instead of looking after myself,” Ussher would later say. “So this time I was determined to run a conservative race and save something for the final stages.”
Historically, the Speight’s Coast to Coast world championship has been won and lost in the final third of the race. In past attempts Ussher, a former Olympic freestyle skier before taking up multisport in 1998, had been a contender only to fall back in the closing stages. This time he simply raced as he felt, trading blows with Rotheram through the run and the short 15k cycle between the run and kayak sections before opening up a huge 15-minute lead on the 67k paddle down the Waimakariri River.With just the 70k road cycle into Christchurch standing between Ussher and victory, the race appeared won. But the 28-year-old was conscious of another Aucklander, former national-class cyclist Gordon Walker, closing fast. “Gordon’s a really strong cyclist,” Ussher would say later, “so I was conscious that I couldn’t relax. I was giving it about 90 percent; just leaving a little bit in case I had to really hammer home.”
But it was a relaxed winner who crossed the line in front of a packed Sumner Beach, stopping the clock at 11:44:07, nine minutes ahead of Walker, who had powered past Rotheram on the last cycle. “Ever since I took up multisport I’ve dreamed of winning this race,” said a clearly emotional Ussher on the line. “It’s taken me seven years, so it feels great to finally do it.”
Also powering across the Southern Alps was Kristina Anglem, who won her second straight Speight’s Coast to Coast world championship to finish an incredible sixth overall. Anglem led from start to finish and commented at the finish line, “I just had the perfect race. I felt great and everything went exactly as we’d planned.”
In a large part Anglem and Ussher dominated the day because they handled the oppressive 30-degree heat better than anyone else. “I heard how people had suffered in the heat in the Two-Day race yesterday,” Anglem said. “So I made sure I drank as much as I could and just focused on running my own race.”
Anglem’s “own race” turned out to be 44 minutes too good for any other woman. She crossed the line in 12:40, with Alexandra’s Sally Fahey finishing second, eight minutes ahead of Canada’s Emily Miazga and New Zealand surf lifesaving rep Andrea Hewitt. Earlier in the day the world champion combination of Jonathan Wyatt and Ben Fouhy overcame their overnight deficit to win the Speight’s Coast to Coast Two-Day teams race.
Wyatt, the four-time world mountain running champion, and Fouhy, the world kayak champion and Olympic silver medallist, ended the first day in second place after former team winners Michael and Graeme Causer turned the tables on the race favourites. But today Fouhy gave Wyatt a huge lead after he kayaked more than 15 minutes faster than anyone else, and Wyatt then surprised with a strong cycle to be first in to Sumner in 10:51:33, almost 18 minutes ahead of the Causer brothers and missing their 1993 team record by just 37secs despite the record heat of the weekend.
In other Two-Day races Christchurch athletes Luke Vaughan and Katrine Lawton totally dominated the individual races, while former
four-time winner of the world championship, Jill Westenra, was part of the winning mixed team with Auckland’s Mark Beesley.
Speight's Coast to Coast
Kumara to Sumner, New Zealand
Friday, February 4-Saturday, February 5, 2005
Provisional Placegetters
World Championship Men
1) Richard Ussher (NZL) 11:44:07
2) Gordon Walker (NZL) 11:53:23
3) Ross Rotherham (NZL) 12:06:49
4) Richard Greer (NZL) 12:23:39
5) Tim Pearson (NZL) 12:26:59
World Championship Women1) Kristina Anglem (NZL) 12:40:34
2) Sally Fahey (NZL) 13:24:51
3) Emily Miazga (CAN) 13:32:04
4) Andrea Hewitt (NZL) 13:58:02
5) Anna Berthelsen (NZL) 14:29:14
Individual Men Two-Day
1) Luke Vaughan (NZL) 11:41:16
2) Cameron Carter (NZL) 12:13:29
3) Duncan Hamilton (NZL) 12:35:24
4) James Richmond (NZL) 12:35:53
5) Jonathan Cleine (NZL) 12:41:07
Individual Women Two-Day
1) Katrine Lawton (NZL) 13:15:26
2) Fleur Pawsey (NZL) 13:54:40
3) Lynne Potter (NZL) 14:04:47
4) Michele Allison (NZL) 14:35:50
5) Kirstine Collins (NZL) 14:44:40
Teams
1) Ben Fouhy, Jonathan Wyatt 10:51:33
2) Graeme Causer, Mike Causer 11:09:26
3) Robin Wilson, Simon Yarrell 11:48:54
4) Jill Westenra, Mark Beesley (mixed) 12:03:03
5) Brendon Metcalfe, Aaron Chambers 12:13:17
6) Brad Williams, Steven Dingwall 12:21:24
7) Gary Glasson, Patrick Sweeney 12:30:03
8) Ian Walsh, Peter King 12:38:25
9) Philip Evans, Benjamin Nilson 12:39:05
10) Dave Rudge, Graham Sinnamon (vet men) 12:45:56
Complete Results