The 18^th Annual TrackMe GO-4-12 Youth Adventure Race was held on the 14^th of April from the Guthrie Smith Outdoor Education Centre in Hawke’s Bay and fifty-two teams took part in the three events during the day. The racing in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Adventure Racing Championships was very competitive as teams made their way around a challenging course. In the male section, it was a real changing of the guard with New Plymouth not featuring on the podium for the first time in the event's history. 

The event was won by Onslow College with Motueka High in second and Taradale High School in Third.  In the Mixed division, John Paul College had a comfortable win over Havelock North High School and Onslow College in Third.

The most interesting story played out in the Female event with the girls from Motueka High School who made a slight navigation mistake in the finishing leg of the 2023 event to come in second and they raced like they had a point to prove. The Motueka girls raced cleanly and hard picking up a maximum of 4250 points to place them third overall and taking out the Female division by 525 points over Sacred Heart College. It must be said that Sacred Heart College did well to get their way back to second place after losing a lot of time in the paddle section where they capsized. In third place, Motueka’s third team was third meaning that all Motueka’s teams podiumed during the day.

All teams who started the day finished with no DNFs which shows the level of preparation that teams have been doing in the build-up to the event. The race organisers want to congratulate all those who took part in the event as to finish a 12-hour Adventure Race is a huge achievement and all of them should be very proud of themselves.

Article added: Monday 29 April 2024