Friday 18 September 2026
What a brilliant day we had in the South Downs! Duncton played host to the sixth and final adventure race of our summer series and the South Downs proved to be the perfect playground to wrap up our Championship. You can read more about what happened in our Championship here.
We also had the Royal Artillery join us for their annual Adventure Race Championships. This was the eleventh year they have joined us and it was great, once again, to see such a strong level of participation from across the Royal Artillery. The teams demonstrated an excellent competitive spirit throughout the day and were a credit to their regiments. For the Royal Artillery, the event continues to provide a valuable opportunity to promote physical fitness, teamwork and adventurous training across the Regiments while bringing together personnel from a range of units in a challenging environment.
From the racer-perspective, the course was probably the toughest of the Series – not necessarily due to the distance or terrain but more due to the distance of the kayaking from the event base making getting to the kayak within the time window a real strategic challenge!
Once again, the sun shone all day but with cooler temperatures it made for pretty much perfect adventure racing conditions – clearly enjoyed by racers with penalties for being late far outweighing rewards for being early! We had some impressive individual penalty performances with six teams joining the 100-penalty points club and Team Adventure before Dementia (Kat Hayes, Gary Davis) racking up a brilliant 575 penalty points – definitely a Questars record!
I know a number of you were once again very appreciative of the free energy drinks provided by our sponsor FIXX Nutrition which no doubt helped to soften some of the hills!
Out on course, at over 50km and over 1,000m of climbing, the bike leg was a tough one! Despite this, Tom Watt managed to clear everything in a time of 3:40 with Daniel Thorby dropping just one checkpoint in 3:21. Carl Silver had the most profitable bike, picking up 2.47 points per minute, followed by Gary Davies (2.33) and Eddie Winthorpe (2.31).
The run route was a biggie at around 24km and with over 700m of climbing and we thought it was going to be too big to clear but we were wrong! An incredible run by Helen Chapman cleared the run in a time of 2:52 with Daniel Thorby (2:08), Simon Jennison (2:17) and Team M&M (Amanda & Mike Yorwerth; 2:50) all just dropping one checkpoint. Daniel Thorby had the most profitable run picking up 2.89 points per minute, followed by Simon Jennison (2.69) and Eddie Wonthorpe (2.58).
At around 6.1km, the kayak was slightly shorter than normal but what it lacked in distance it more than made up for with tide, flow and wind in places! This, mixed with the difficulty in getting to the kayak with enough time left of the window lead to only six teams completing it – our lowest completion rate all Series (and for as long as memory serves)! Team Rat Pack (Maj Finlay & Maj Whiting) were fastest in an impressive time of 53:50 followed by Graeme & Aidan Williams (54:51), Kate Shepherd & Tom Hawley (57:53), Scott McMillan & Camille McMillan (58:03), Isla Reynolds & Nina Ingham (58:59) and Rakesh Thakrar, Robert Granger & Graham Thornton (59:12).
The kayak leg proved to be the most profitable with teams picking up an average of 2.04 points per minute compared to 1.8 points per minute on the run and 1.42 points per minute on the bike – lower than normal and an indication of just how tough the bike course was.
Dan Thorby returned to take the overall win on 882 points with Helen Chapman winning the female category on 784 points.
As ever, the race base was abuzz with stories of adventure and misadventure at the finish including many a tale of kayaking woe!
All in all, it was another amazing day of racing and a huge thank you to everyone who came out to take part and support at our event and helped to make it such a great day, we know that some of you travelled great distances including Faye Berdoff and Justin Nunez who joined us all the way from the US to take part with their nephews.
Huge, huge thank yous as well to Abbie, Debbie, Hilary, Jerry, Jim, Paul, Robert, and Matt who volunteered as marshals, Neil our medic and Dan, Naiche and Rob out on course providing excellent media coverage. A special thanks as well to Ross (Cyclexperience) who not only provided bikes for those who need them but also helped throughout the day with mechanicals and even cleared up at the end of the day! Thank you everyone!
For us, our attention now turns our 25-hour anniversary event on the weekend of 24 and 25 October before we kick off our Winter Series in Wiltshire in November.
Full results can be found here and pictures here (where you can search using either a selfie or your bib number and download high-res images for free). A summary of results is below.
RESULTS
ROYAL ARTILLERY ADVENTURE RACE
We had our Royal Artillery teams out in full force on Saturday and they didn’t disappoint! In the mixed team category, The Battleaxe Warriors (Gnr Wood, Gnr Marks) came in on 171 points for third place. Double Ducks (SSgt Hillman, WO2 Wilkes) came in with 240 points for second place while Subbie & Stripe:Axe-ing for trouble (Lbdr Benson, Lt Wilton) won the category with 319 points, a great performance!
In the open team category, Chrome Dome & Silver Gunner (WO2 Roberts, WO2 Savage) came in third with 353 points (including a 13-point time bonus). In second came K Bty Officers (Capt Imrie, Lt Cowie) with 407 points and to top the podium were Rat Pack (Maj Finlay, Maj Whiting) with 575 points and near perfect timing – the best score of the day in the five hour event!
RUN ONLY
No whine no run (Rochelle Jones, Ruth Brownlee) won the female category with 270 points, just 5 points behind the Mixed Team winners the Flying Seals (Hannah Wyles, James Townley) with 275 points. First in the Open category was Going Solo – Nick Mileham with a very respectable 301 – welcome back Nick!
DUO
Lots of familiar and new faces in this category with newbies J-Lo Duo (Joseph Jackson, Lotte Griffin) sealing the win with 641 points. Just 6 points behind them were Team Burridge (Rob Burridge, Katie Horsfield) on 635 points and Montyzoomer – Mark Montgomery with 605 points to round off the podium.
TRIO NOVICE MIXED
Team Lost Already! (Christie R, Jason Le Huray) with 360 points, Team Baddie (Maddie Difazio-Wright, Benjamin Wooff) with 370 points and to top it off were Team PG Tips (Emily Powell-Griffin, Steffan Powell-Griffin) with 469 points.
TRIO NOVICE FEMALE
Team Why run when you can skip? (Lucy Witter and Helen Lacey) scored 294 points. With Pasta makes you run fasta (Jessica Collins) ahead on 309 points. To win it, Team Kayak chaos (Natalie Gillbanks, Emma McCrea) came out and smashed a win with 339 points and a great day out based on the smiles we saw!
TRIO NOVICE OPEN
Team Shizzle my Drizzle (Phil Bolton, Matt Ward) in third with 547 points. Na Toir Suas (Harry Gow, Tommy Antonio) with 560 points and near perfect timing on 04:59:29. In first was Chrisopher Casanovas with 574 points and a great win!
TRIO MASTERS MIXED TEAMS
A great showing in the mixed team category with 20 teams coming out to duke it out. From couples to parents and child and teams of friends, getting out for 6 hours is a great way to bond! In third place we had regular Team Frisky Whiskers: Next Gen with Sarah and son Ed Russell. A great day out for two very accomplished outdoors folks gaining 670 points and those 10 time bonus points out for grab. MandM (Mike Yorwerth, Amanda Yorwerth) ahead with 693 points and Team Wait for me Missus (Carol and Andy Yarrow) in first with a whopping 764 points, what a fantastic day out for all!
TRIO MASTERS FEMALE TEAMS
Queen Bees (June and Julia Kingsbury) were back to action as June was out with an injury for a couple of events. They sealed third with 606 points, just 1 point ahead of Wild Wombles (Vanessa Fisher and Ellie Caple) on 605 teaming up for the first time in prep for the Long Mynd 25 event, so close ladies! In second were Midnight’s Runners (Laura Ashfield, Nicola Adams) with 640 points. And having a race of a lifetime, the Mad Old Tarts (Maggie Salter and Liz Jones) showed up and then some to have an amazing day out! These ladies know what theyre doing, regularly appearing on the podium, but when everything comes together, this is the result! Fantastic racing ladies!
TRIO MASTERS OPEN TEAMS
With just 37 points splitting the top four teams, the open teams also had a blinder of a day out. In third Safe Strength Chepstow (James Brown and Andy Waterhouse) came in on 745 points, just 3 points behind second team On Yer Bike (Robert Carter and Ed Gurney) with 748 points. To top it off, fresh from GCSE results, Fusion Adventure Racing Team (Graeme and Aiden Williams) were back on top with 776 points – a fab day out, finishing first overall on the kayak leg, 3rd overall on the run and 4th overall on the bike. Like Aiden’s hair, racing meaner, leaner, and longer?!
TRIO MASTERS FEMALE
Mandy Hibberd coming in third with 695 points, Ella Pyman back to racing solo, with 719 points, and Helen back from a few months off our events to grab the win with 780 points. All the solo ladies showing us their timekeeping prowess as they all came within to receive time bonus points! Excellent day out.
TRIO MASTERS OPEN
With 7 teams racking up scores of 800 or more points, this was a race filled with lots of our top end competitors and they all showed up! Tom Hards staying on the podium in third with 842 points, just 4 points behind Carl Silver in second on 846 points. To win it, it’s clear those all-nighters haven’t slowed him down as new father Daniel Thorby stormed the day with 875 points including 7 bonus points. A stellar day out for him and all our solo racers!
VETS
In the Vets Open category, Carl Silver took the overall win with an adjusted score of 871 points, ahead of Eddie Winthorpe (863) with Tom Watt finishing in third (854). In the Female category, an absolutely incredible performance by Liz Jones and Maggie Salter took home the win with 863 points – the joint second best of the day! Behind them, Carole Yarrow came in second on 844 points with Ella Pyman in third on 827 points.
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