Although over 2500 will set off to test their mettle in The Kokoda Challenge, history shows that 30 per cent of competitors will not make the finish line.
Despite the odds, there is no shortage of starters for the 2012 Kokoda Challenge, which will kick off on Saturday, July 14, at 7am, when 1827 competitors will line up at Firth Park, Somerset Drive, Mudgeeraba to compete in what’s widely regarded by elite athletes as Australia’s toughest cross-country team endurance test.
The 7am starters will include 59 five-person teams of Southeast Queensland and Northern New South Wales school students (295), who are aiming to complete the 96km journey in the fastest time and bring home the coveted Stan Bisset Cup, which is held annually in conjunction with the Kokoda Challenge.
Taking the total tally of Kokoda Challenge competitors to 2567, another 148 teams of Southeast Queensland and Northern New South Wales school children aged 13 years and over (740) will line up at 12 noon at the halfway mark of the Kokoda Challenge course at the Numinbah Environmental Centre (off Nerang-Murwillumbah Road). While the Challenge leaders race past, having completed the first 48km, the gutsy school kids will take off to cover the remaining 48km of the course in the hope of winning the annual Jim Stillman Cup for their school.
Samantha Klintworth, CEO of the Kokoda Challenge Association, says the spirit of Kokoda lives in those few minutes before the race.
“Having been there for every event since it all began in 2005, I know the start line experience is really emotional,” says Samantha, who has completed the Kokoda Challenge five times and walked the Kokoda Track three times.
“Silence falls over the huge crowd when the bugle plays and, unlike the mad rush at marathons and fun run events, at the Kokoda Challenge the gun goes off and people quietly take off,” she said.
“No one starts this race cocky. They take off with anticipation, apprehension and humility, and it moves me every time.”
As competitors are acutely aware, the Kokoda Challenge is no walk in the park! It’s a 96 kilometre, gruelling event that not only tests physical fitness to the extremes, but challenges the mental and emotional strengths of its competitors every step of the way.
The course is a medley of viciously steep hills and rugged, and at times slippery, terrain, reaching 5500 metres vertical elevation, similar to the notorious Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea.
In teams of four, the competitors will walk day and night, following selected fire trails and paths through Austinville, Springbrook, Numinbah Valley, Beechmont and Clagiraba, passing four major checkpoints along the way, to the welcome sight of the finish line at the Nerang Velodrome.
To qualify, competitors must finish as a complete team of four, true to the spirit forged on the Kokoda Track in 1942: mateship, endurance, courage and sacrifice.
The time limit is 39 hours in honour of the 39th Militia, the first Australian Troops to set foot on the Kokoda Track in 1942. Whilst some will take the maximum time to complete the course, the first teams are expected to reach Nerang Velodrome between 5pm and 5.30pm on Saturday afternoon.
Money raised through the Challenge will benefit the Kokoda Challenge Youth Program, which helps young people gain confidence, direction, life skills, new friends and the knowledge that anything is possible. http://kokodachallenge.com/kokoda-challenge-youth-program
All of the teenagers currently enrolled in the Kokoda Challenge Youth Program will compete in the Challenge as a warm-up to the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, which they will walk in their school holidays in September 2012.
