Discovery Communications Inc. and Southern Traverse Ltd, announce that
the central European country of Switzerland will play host to the
inaugural Discovery Channel World Championship Adventure Race in
September.
Set to be the Worlds supreme adventure competition of the year, the
Discovery Channel World Championship Adventure Race will take place in
Switzerland's remote alpine areas, traversing breathtaking high peaks,
glaciers and mountainous terrain. Disciplines include rafting, fixed
ropes, rappelling and mountain biking along with glacier and mountain
trekking.
Race dates are set for the first week in September, 2001 with race
registration starting on August the 31st . Actual race start will be the
3rd of September with an expected finish for the leading teams on the
7th of September.
Southern Traverse directors Geoff Hunt and Pascale Lorre say Switzerland
is the ideal country to host the first ever Discovery Channel World
Championship.
" We were overwhelmed by Switzerland's beauty when we visited earlier
this year and the extremes of the mountainous environment will ensure
that the Discovery Channel World Championship Adventure race is
immensely challenging to the best racers in the world," says Pascale
Lorre.
Discovery Channel will film the World Championship for a four-hour
television mini-series, to be exclusively broadcast to the network's
global audience in early 2002. Discovery Channel is currently broadcast
in 152 countries around the world.
50 international teams, representing some of the worlds most enduring
and successful athletes will take part in the Discovery Channel World
Championship Adventure Race. Registrations opened on the 21 February and
already there are over seven countries represented in the field line up
including USA, Canada, France, Finland, Holland, Australia, Singapore
and New Zealand.
The Discovery Channel World Championship Adventure Race is the first
bona fide adventure championship event to be held and is supported by
the AR World series, an alliance of 7 international adventure races
that serve as qualifiers for the event .
These races are the Beast of the East-USA, The Appalachian Extreme-USA,
Adrenalin Rush-UK and Ireland, Raid the North-Canada, Hi Tec Adventure
Quest - South Africa, Southern Traverse-New Zealand and Expedicao Mata
Atlantica-Brazil.
Winners of these events will receive guaranteed entry into the
Discovery Channel World Championship Adventure Race and Southern
Traverse Director Geoff Hunt says it's time for adventurers to step up
to a new level of competition.
This will be an event where the top teams can truly rival each other in
a race specifically designed to challenge them,"says Hunt," We've seen
in the Southern Traverse over the last two years the emergence of
faster, semi professional teams who are significantly ahead of the bulk
of the field and these teams are now signing up for the championship".
Discovery Channel is one of the world's largest cable television
networks, serving more than 185 million subscribers in 152 countries
across the globe with the finest in informative entertainment.
Constantly redefining the boundaries of
real-world entertainment with ground breaking expeditions, global
programming events and innovative storytelling from the world's most
talented filmmakers, the Discovery Channel presents the highest quality
programming spanning science
and technology, nature, history, human adventure and world culture
genres.
Southern Traverse Ltd. is a premier international Sport Event Management
company. Southern Traverse Ltd. operates and manages elite events
around the world, including the Discovery Channel World Championship
Adventure Race, the AR World Series and New Zealand's icon adventure
race, the Southern Traverse.
For more information email Southern Traverse at traverse@queenstown.co.nz or go to the
Southern Traverse website