'World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji': Meet the teams that won the adventure race and made it to the podium
Spoilers for 'World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji'
'World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji' featured 66 teams comprised of adventure athletes from 30 different countries descend on the beautiful tropical islands of Fiji. As scenic as the locale was, the Fiji terrain was unforgiving and the challenges in this edition of 'eco-challenge', that was revived after a 16-year hiatus, were designed to be more punishing than ever before. They were also made to break the teams physically, mentally and emotionally, which it did.
However, the beauty of the sport is such that people who had to quit did so only if it was mathematically impossible for them to make it to the next leg. Teams were way behind the lead teams, some got lost in the dense forests, some were injured and some had no modern technology aided devices on them, however, they kept pushing themselves to make it to the finish line even if that meant they would cross it at the end. So which teams managed to finish the race first and which two teams made it to the podium?
Team New Zealand had a very choppy beginning in the race as their boat capsized just a couple of minutes after the race started. However, they made a quick recovery and managed to maintain the second position in the race. This team was headed by Nathan Fa'avae who Bear Grylls described as the Michael Jordan of adventure racing. The team was one of the biggest movers in the competition and they kept pushing forward like professionals. Their commitment was commendable in this "expedition with a stopwatch" as they kept advancing with little sleep, all without any incident until they crossed the final checkpoint and were racing to reach the finish line.
Their canoe once again capsized in the water in the dead of the night and they radioed the race HQ about their condition signaling a 'Mayday' as all of them were underwater. The race management team rescued them and started working towards getting them a new canoe but time was still ticking and they lost a total of three hours because of this. However, no other team could catch up with them while they suffered this setback. This race was a 10-day event, however, this Kiwi team covered the entire 671-kilometer stretch in a matter of seven days. Not only did they become the winners of this iconic race, but team members Fa'avae, Sophie Hart, Stuart Lynch, Chris Forne and Mark Rayward (team assistant) took home the prize money of $100,000.
Coming in an hour and a half after the winners, Team Canada Adventure featuring Bob Miller (captain), Ryan Atkins, Scott Ford, Rea Kolbl and Wayne Leek (team assistant) finished the race in the second position. They constantly trailed Team New Zealand for the better part of the race and took home the silver. In a matter of a few minutes, Team Gippsland Adventure from Australia arrived at the podium, finishing in the third position.
'World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji' is now streaming on Netflix.