Sam Clark won the men's elite and Elina Ussher won the women's elite one-day race in the 2016 Coast to Coast.
2016 Coast Coast winner Sam Clark. Photo: Coast to Coast
Clark, who finished in second last year, has gone one better this year in the 243 multisport race which starts in Kumara on the West Coast and finishes at New Brighton Beach in Christchurch.
Clark completed the race in just over 11 hours and 37 minutes.
The event started yesterday with a 55-kilometre bike ride, followed by a 33-kilometre run over the Southern Alps.
Elina Ussher won the women's elite.
The 39-year-old from Nelson has now claimed the adventure race title for the third time.
Two students at Christchurch's Aranui High became the youngest competitors to finish the Coast to Coast adventure race when they crossed the finish line about 5pm this evening.
Taitama Tukaki, 16, and Bryce Adamson, 15, were greeted on the finish line by a haka from fellow students at Aranui High, a low decile school in the east of the city.
Taitama Tukaki and Bryce Adamson at the finish of the Coast to Coast race. Photo: RNZ / Conan Young
The pair battled through cramps and exhaustion yesterday to complete the cycling mountain run section of the race.
Former Coast to Coast winners, Steve Gurney and Nathan Fa'avae, today teamed up with the boys in double kayaks to help them with the five hour journey down the Waimakariri River.
Supporters of Aranui students who finished the Coast to Coast perform haka in their honour. Photo: RNZ / Conan Young
Fa'avae and three time race winner Emily Miazga then joined the pair for the final 70 kilometre cycle ride into Christchurch.
At the finish, Tukaki's proud mother, Sue Rangihuna, said her son almost didn't make it to the start line after hitting a parked car while out training on his bike and breaking his nose.
He was an inspiration for his whole family, she said.
Photo: PhotoSport
