|
|
|
|
|
|
For further information contact: |
|
Polar Race 2003 News: 30 April - 3 May 2022 (Leg 4)3 May 2022 - Extreme Steps complete final leg in a very fast time and ViP3 get to the pole on the same day The Extreme Steps team of Steve East and Mike Krimholtz surprised everyone but themselves in putting up an extremely fast time on the final leg. They adopted a strategy of making the last leg of 40 miles into a "sprint leg" in the first ever Polar Race for the Wedgwood Blue Ice Trophy.
Very much the novices when they started out they astonished everyone with their speed of progress up the learning curve and on the third leg had finished only a few hours behind the highly rated Polar Team of Tony Martin and Richard Dunwoody. ViP3 and Extreme Steps started the final leg on a different day and at a different time to the two leading teams. They pushed themselves to the limit taking only a few hours sleep and posted a last leg time of just over 27 hours.
Finishing fourth in the race and probably creating a new Arctic record was the British team of ViP3: Richard Raine, Casper Hays and, the only female racing, Babs Powell who has shown, for a generation of fifty year olds, how mind can triumph over body.
She is almost certainly the oldest female to have ever accomplished such a feat, a terrific achievement for her and her teammates who unselfishly bolstered her during the race.
2 May 2022 - Initial Style Explorers complete the last leg of the Polar Race and are confirmed as the overall winners The Initial Style Explorers team of Chris McLeod, Phil Ashby and Manley Hopkinson dominated the Polar Race for the Wedgwood Blue Ice trophy. They finished today (Thursday 1st May) to win the Race 22 days after setting out from Resolute Bay in Nunavut.
Their actual time racing between checkpoints was just over 10 days,
which meant they were averaging nearly 35 miles a day. This is quite a
phenomenal performance in the severe conditions prevailing and a
statistic that astounded the locals more used to doing that sort of
speed on skidoos. They survived temperatures as low as -40°C, deep
snow and ice and encounters with polar bears.
Finishing only a few hours behind in the overall stakes was the second placed team of Tony Martin and former champion jockey Richard Dunwoody who overcame a multitude of injuries including a twice dislocated shoulder to finish.
What is unclear yet is who has won this stage as both Initial Style
Explorers and Polar Team opted to start a day earlier than the other
teams and until the other teams both finish and their elapsed time for
the leg is calculated we will not know that result. 1 May 2022 - All the teams are on the ice racing to the finish of the final leg of the Polar Race 2003 for the Wedgwood Blue Ice Trophy
Initial Style Explorers and Polar Team continue their head-to-head
confrontation during the final leg of the race. Tony Martin of Polar
Team said: "Initial Style Explorers may be ahead overall but we are
still going to be going flat out to beat them on this final leg."
In the call from the checkpoint team, we were given an update on the
most northerly open golf competition between Ian Davis and Mark Harris
- Ian 6, Mark 3, 6 to play. 30 April 2022 - ViP3 reach Checkpoint 3 and Initial Style Explorers and Polar Team set off on the last leg of the Polar Race 2003 ViP3 arrived at Checkpoint 3 at about 1900 hrs after completing the penultimate stage of the race in good weather conditions - sunny and no wind. They are fit, in fine spirits and will start the final leg with Extreme Steps.
Meanwhile at noon today Initial Style Explorers and Polar Team started the last leg of the Polar Race. The third leg was a mass start and the picture shows Ian Davis officially starting the third leg.
Jock Wishart introduces Initial Style Explorers, the team that has led the way by winning every leg so far of the Polar Race. They are:
Phil Ashby was the youngest ever Major in the British Services and won
the Queen's Gallantry Medal for leading the escape in Sierra Leone. He
wrote a best selling book on his exploits on which a film is being based
and bets are now being taken on who will play him in the lead role.
Brad Pitt and Vin Diesel are the front-runners. Phil is a bit of an
equipment freak always looking to improve any item of equipment that he
is issued with. It is his knowledge, determination and drive that has
made ISE the team they are.
After reading the poem Matty added: Other News Items
Home |
About |
Competitors |
Multimedia |
Archive |
Sponsors |
Join |
Press
© Polar Adventures Ltd 2005 |
Matty McNair, who with Paul Landry carried out much of the pre-race
training here in the Arctic, read a poem for the Racers on the night
before they started.