Tuesday, October 24, 2017
SOAKING up their achievement at the finish line in Opotiki having finished this Motu Challenge are the Hopefuls team of Glenn Phipps, Charlie Paruru, Mark Haywood and Danny Paruru.
Race doctor wants locals to get into Motu Challenge
Ross McCullough
EXPERIENCING the Motu Challenge for the first time as a competitor in the team event this year, has lit a fire in Mark Haywood, a doctor with the Opotiki Community Health Centre.
He is now keen to get other locals involved in taking up the challenge next year.
Race doctor at the annual multisport event for the past 18 years, Haywood told Opotiki News he always thought he would have a go at taking part one day.
His chance came when he was asked to join The Motu Hopefuls team with Glenn Phipps, and brothers Danny and Charlie Paruru.
Haywood completed the first part of the team event, a 65-kilometre mountainbike ride, in a time of four hours and five minutes.
He called it a great experience and surprised himself because his previous best time was four hours and 43 minutes.
Haywood said he started training back in July – the first time he had been on a bicycle in 20 years.
The first time he rode through the course was on September 2, completing it in five hours and 15 minutes in weather that included lightening, hail, thunder and rain.
“I thought I was going to die at the other end. I wanted to beat that time (on Saturday) and get that down to four hours and 30 minutes for our team.
Taking part as a competitor for the first time lived up to all his expectations.
He said it offered him the challenge he was seeking, especially the difficult uphill sections on the 65km, but the downhills also had their own challenges.
“The whole track is a challenge and the sheer distance.”
As race doctor, he said he had always been impressed with the riders coming through over the years with the front runners “absolutely phenomenal”.
His experience gave him a further appreciation of the main race and its challenging length – and how well prepared most of the athletes were.
He said their preparedness and general health and well-being was why there was not a high attrition rate for the event these days with very little going wrong.
He would love to see newcomers give it a go in 2018 and encourages Opotiki residents to make it a challenge for themselves.
A New Zealand Manuka team also entered in the race on Saturday, and Ted Vellenoweth and Chris Donkin entered as a team of two in the Motu 160 cycling event.
Other locals who competed individually in the Motu Challenge included the likes of Barry Hennessy, Dale, Renee and George Teddy and Jim Robinson.
Mark Haywood rides the Pakahi track in the first stage mountainbike ride in his first ever Motu Challenge. Photos supplied
Lost runner only race hiccup
Yiting Yu
While there was little in the way of medical issues during the 2017 Motu Challenge a female competitor in the team event became lost on the 17km run.
Event organiser Mike van der Boom said it was the first time in the history of the event that anyone had become lost on the run.
Yiting Yu, a member of one of the NZ Manuka teams, mistook a possum lane for where the markers to the running track was.
She effected what Mr van der Boom said was essentially, a self-rescue.
“She realised she was in trouble and found her way to the nearest farm where she got help.”
An official search for her was well under way by then with her missed arrival at the change-over point alerting organisers to the situation.
Mr van der Boom said Miss Yu’s team did finish with a team-mate sent on by officials when she didn’t arrive at the change-over.
He said her becoming lost was a little concerning, but this was why the event had procedures in place.
Health and safety procedures for the event had been updated prior to this year’s event, and it was heartening that being prepared had paid off.
Race doctor Mark Haywood said apart from the lost runner, there was one athlete with a graze and another with a known heart complaint, who pulled themselves out of the event.
Mr van der Boom said there were also a couple of bike crashes, but that wasn’t anything unusual.