Adventure Sport News  

Chepelin and Northrop win Rate Race

Scotland's Oleg Chepelin and England's Neil Northrop have scored a superb victory for Britain in the Rat Race in Newcastle. The event lasted a gruelling six and a half hours and the British duo won by 25 minutes.

The Rat Race is an Adventure Race based in an urban environment and - as with orienteering - a significant part is navigation based.

The first section was a short orienteering course and was followed by a long cycle ride including some more map memory.

Next was a 30-minute sea-kayak section followed by a short run section around Tynemouth and then back on the bikes for the return leg to Baltic Square.

After dropping off the bikes and a short run to the Tyne Bridge, the boys faced a 40m abseil, then a rock climb and bungee run.

Completing these challenges fairly easily, Oleg and Neil then had to complete a second loop.

Then another cycle ride led to an outdoor education centre, for a simple Orienteering course, bouldering, high-ropes, assault course and archery. It was then back on the bikes for the return ride back to Baltic Square.

The final section was all foot based, as a question and answer based score challenge. This led to the start of the 'Stair Climb', intervals up and down 5 sets of steps with controls at the bottom and top of each set and then a return run to Baltic Square. Some day!