Competitors selected for ‘hex-tremely’ challenging sports event

A record number of entries were submitted for this year’s Poole Audi Hextreme, one of the UK’s most innovative and challenging sports events. Organisers, Poole Tourism and Liz Lean PR, and sponsors discussed and analysed the exceptional standard of application and have now nominated 30 top men and 12 top women competitors for the event, based at Poole’s blue flag Sandbanks beach, on Sunday 12th September. Whereas the men’s entries were significantly over subscribed, three further positions are currently available within the women’s competition.

The successful entrants for this Poole Tourism event are both local and national athletes travelling as far afield as Aberdeen, Leicester, London and Bristol to participate in the event. The forty-two contestants all have competitive experience and many are instructors in one or more of the six sports. The event will provide entrants with the opportunity to demonstrate their immense experience in triathlons, biathlons, the Great North Run, and the London Marathon.

Contestants will compete in six gruelling sport disciplines that cover various distances and terrain and will gain aggregate scores across the six activities. The schedule consists of:
· 15km off-road cycle
· 500m swim in the sea
· 1000m kayak
· triangular windsurf course in the sea
· triangular laser sail course in the sea
· 5km run along the beach and chines.

The 2004 entrants will join the prestigious competitor list that also includes British Olympic pentathlon medallist, Kate Allenby. Kate successfully competed in the first-ever Hex-treme competition in 2001 and is now Patron of the event. It is an important year for Kate as she competes in the Modern Pentathlon at the Athens Olympic Games for Great Britain in August aiming to win a medal. Kate is also Britain’s official ambassador for the 2012 Olympic bid.

Local sports organisations are supporting the event and will each co-ordinate a leg of the six-event competition. These are Poole Wheelers, Bournemouth Canoes, Poole Runners, Rockley Watersports, Hamworthy Outdoor Education Centre, RNLI Beach Lifeguards and FC Watersports.

David Kelly, managing director of Poole Audi, says; “Each year we continue to receive a higher standard of entry and have had to make some difficult decisions as the depth of sporting talent from across the country improves. The chosen competitors are now training hard in anticipation of the September event and we expect an action-packed competition that will be highly exciting to watch.”

The prize fund totals £1,200 and the top three men and top three women will also receive memberships from Fitness First plc and gift vouchers from Cotswold Outdoor, the UK’s award winning chain of outdoor clothing and equipment stores.