-Edited… The race for the ARWC World title is now between six leading teams Swedish Armed Forces, Adventure Team, Estonian ACE / La Sportiva, 400 team (France), Merrell Songlines (RSA), Absoluraid Capganguise (France), and Bend Racing Skin Doctor (USA).
This is according to Adventure Racing World Series’ (ARWS) Race Update, on Day 3 of the ARWC2023, 21 October,
The leading pack of 6 teams completed Leg 5 – Kayak on the Fish River before the dark zone came into effect at 7 pm.
South African Team, Merrell Songlines, hit the water just after noon yesterday and had until 7pm to cover 65kms along the Great Fish River towards T5. – they are among the strongest paddlers in this event.
If they miss this crucial deadline, they will have to exit the river and camp out until 5am tomorrow morning, splitting them from the leading racers.
Behind them, five more teams were caught by the dark zone and had to camp on the riverside. They can resume paddling at 5 am.
A large group of teams are at TA3 where there are good facilities and hot food to sit out a wet night, and they will resume with the aim of arriving at the kayak start by 5 am this am when the dark zone lifts.
The majority of teams are still on the Leg 3 – Trek and are either progressing towards TA3, or have taken shelter overnight on lower ground against the wet and windy weather. From the tracking some appear to be short-cutting part of the trekking route to reach TA3.
Currently three teams have withdrawn from the race, while another 10 are continuing as non-competitive teams after one member of the team withdrew.
Yesterday, owing to nasty weather conditions, there were some unexpected challenges.
ARWC organisers’ priority is the safety of all participants and so some route adjustments were made. The cold weather caused some teams to pause on the 80km Leg 3 – Trek.
Some teams pulled out of the race owing to the weather or for injury or dehydration.
For safety reasons the abseil (CP29) and CP30 collection were cancelled owing to rising water levels making the waterfall abseil unsafe.
New plans were made to transport teams from T2 to T3, bypassing the 80km Leg 3 – Trek, and allowing teams to resume the race.
See Video of Day 3… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT_IXAWTs7s
The organisers say: “Safety is our top concern. The adventure continues, though with some route adjustments. Stay tuned for more updates.”
The tracking page is updated with these details when they are confirmed. www.expafrica.live
Nine more teams (see photo) have stopped at, or returned to TA2, and will spend the night there before being transferred to TA3 this morning at 9 am.
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St Francis Chronicle 