Glory Days for Multisporters Set to Return at Motatapu

From 2013 multisporters will have their chance of glory with the addition of a multisport option to be raced in alternate years of the Motatapu event.

Geoff Matthews, Director of Iconic Adventures, organisers of the Motatapu, hopes the new Motatapu R&R Sport multisport event will be a return to glory days for multisporters.

“Finishing the Motatapu R&R Sport Multisport event will possibly be the largest crowd that any multisporter has ever seen in New Zealand, the winner will get the accolades they deserve when crossing the finish line,” says Matthews.

Matthews says the inaugural Motatapu R&R Sport Multisport event will be held in March 2013 and be held once every two years, alternating each year with the R&R Sport Adventure Run. 

“The multisport course will consist of a 15km kayak down the Matukituki River, a mountain bike through the Motatapu Valley on the same course as the Motatapu Speight’s Summit 47km Mountain Bike and then finish with the 15km Arrowtown.com Miners Trail Run,” Geoff Matthews says.

Local Queenstown multisport legend and co-owner of R&R Sport, Haydn Key, says multisporters have become thinner on the ground over recent years and he laments the passing of most of the classic multisport events.

“With the Motatapu having such great momentum and such a big event feel, it will be really fantastic to have a true multisport option at the event, Haydn says. “This will be a return to the classic one-day multisport format with the introduction of the kayak, mountain bike and run. It will be a fantastic course as well.”

Geoff Matthews, himself a former winner of the Southern Traverse and the Head to Head Multisport event, says there are a number of reasons that have lead to the demise of multisport participation and the number of multisport races in New Zealand but hopes the new Motatapu R&R Sport multisport event will reverse the trend.

“Over the past decade increased health and safety, as well as the high cost of accessing land and compliance costs, has made most events unsustainable,” Geoff Matthews says. “It is highly unlikely that a multisport event like this would be able to operate successfully as a stand-alone event, therefore incorporating it into the other Motatapu events held on the same day guarantees its survival,” he says.

Matthews also questions whether multisporters have in fact hung up their kayaks and gone onto other things because of the lack of atmosphere around multisport events. “While the scenery of the New Zealand countryside is spectacular, the atmosphere around multisport events often never quite matched it,” he says.

“It’s what I call the two cow finish line. I can distinctly remember finishing a multisport race in front of three people and a few cows in a paddock. This came only a few weeks after racing in front of 25,000 people at the Auckland Ironman. It’s extremely demoralising, and I hope the thought of finishing in front of the big crowd will spur a few people into dusting off their kayaks,” Geoff Matthews says.

The running of the inaugural R&R Sport Mutlisport event in 2013 will also mean that Adventure Runners who miss out on entering this year will have to wait until 2014 to race the R&R Adventure Run.

Other events to be held in conjunction with the Motatapu include; the Speight’s Summit 47km Mountain Bike, Icebreaker Off Road Marathon, Arrowtown.com Miners Trail 15km mountain run and the XTERRA UDC Finance Motatapu Triathlon.