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Seagate Win from Nokia

Jackie Yu / 15.12.2003

On a day that will long be remembered for heroics and heat, Team Seagate NZ won their first ever Outdoor Quest. “The race was very stressful,� said a jubilant Nathan Fa\'avae, captain of Seagate NZ. “But the team worked together and pushed through. It was a great race. All the other teams put up a good fight.�

Seagate NZ take home $48,000 ( US ) for the victory, which marks the finale of the 2003 adventure racing season. And Finland \'s Nokia Adventure takes home $30,000 for second.
Nike ACG/Balance Bar, who began the day in second place, slipped to third during a disastrous underwater orienteering section of the course.

Nokia took advantage of the miscue to win Day Four of the competition to move up in the rankings and secure one of their best results this year. “We had a lot of luck in the water. The control marker was very small and very hard to see in the blue water, but we found it.� Said Petri Forsman.

“Unexcusable,� was how Michael Tobin of Nike ACG/Balance Bar termed his team\'s slide in the rankings. “We had a lead and squandered it. We\'re better than that.�

Seagate NZ held a twelve-minute lead at the start of the day, but weren\'t predicting victory. Instead, they were in the habit of stating that anything can happen in adventure racing – and usually does. Seagate NZ had escaped fiasco during the first three stages, but on Day Four their luck changed. The team suffered a flat tyre during the mountain bike segment and lost precious time stopping to fix it.

With 6-km of mountain biking remaining they suffered another flat. Out of luck and out of spare bike tubes, Fa\'avae chose to ride those last kilometers on a bare rim. “It was fantastic,� Seagate NZ\'s Heyden Key said of Fa\'avae\'s performance.

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