Adventure Racing teams from 26 nations are now gathered in the city of Cuenca in Southern Ecuador for the Imptek Huairasinchi race, which is hosting the 20th Adventure Racing World Championship. The race begins on Saturday November 30th.
Huairasinchi takes its name from the Kichwa word meaning ‘strength of the wind’ and is the oldest race in the Adventure Racing World Series. Organised by Proyecto Aventura, it first took place in 2003 and explores a new wilderness region of Ecuador with each race.
Huairasinchi previously held the World Championship in 2014, a race made famous when a Swedish team adopted ‘Arthur’ the dog during the race, a story featured in the movie ‘Arthur the King’, which was released this year starring Mark Wahlberg. A decade later Huairasinchi becomes the 4th race to host its second World Championship.
The host venue is the city of Cuenca and it is a perfect location for an expedition adventure race. The surrounding region is a mix of Andean and Amazonian landscapes and teams of 4 (all mixed gender) will complete a 558km course of trekking, mountain biking and pack-rafting, racing non-stop for 4-6 days, all the time navigating their own route.
“The course will be a challenge fit for a World Championship,” said Race Director Santiago Lopez. “Teams will experience an incredible mix of bio-diversity, cultures and landscapes on their journey. The diversity of the area will offer a unique and immersive experience in tropical jungle, pristine rivers, amazing highlands and more. The racers will have an epic experience with lots of wildlife, views, terrain and some very different weather conditions along the course.”
The race is the climax of the 2024 Adventure Racing World Series, which included over 70 races worldwide and 12 Qualifier expedition races of 3-5 days. (These took place in Australia, Chile, Mexico, USA, Brazil, Namibia, Colombia, Poland, Paraguay and Panama.)
ARWS CEO Heidi Muller said at the opening press conference. “It is a privilege to be here in Cuenca and Ecuador and I would like to thank the city and Huairasinchi for hosting us. The World Championship has brought us all to this wonderful place, which we might never otherwise have visited. Teams have been acclimatizing and exploring the surrounding mountains, volcanoes and rivers and sharing their experiences of this adventure paradise.
“Once the race starts the teams will be immersed in their race and the landscape, with no access to media, but their stories will be shared with the world by our dedicated media team, who will work day and night in challenging conditions. I wish every team a wonderful race experience here in Ecuador.”
At the opening press conference in Cuenca, the event was welcomed by Jota Lloret for the Prefectura del Azuay and Dominique Baquero Gerente representing the Municipality of Cuenca. The custom designed race bib, which teams will wear throughout the competition, was also introduced and Camila Nicolau of Team Brazil Multisport spoke for the athletes.
Team Brazil Multisport (world rank #2) is amongst the race favourites, but to take the title they will have to beat the defending champions, The Swedish Armed Forces Adventure Team.
The military team aim to retain their title and become 3 time World Champions, and face strong competition to do so. All of the world’s top 10 teams will be on the start line, and this includes Life Adventure Imptek, the top ranked Ecuadorian team (world #8).
The race begins on Saturday November 30th at an undisclosed location and teams will not know the course until the race briefing on the 29th. They must prepare to be self-sufficient during the race and only teams who finish with a complete team will be ranked. The winners are expected to cross the finish line on Wednesday December 4th but race timings depend on weather conditions.
The race will have extensive media coverage on #Huairasinchi and #ARWorldseries media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, TikTok and X). There will also be live satellite tracking of the teams, so race fans (dot-watchers) can follow their favourites throughout the race.
Follow the live tracking at https://live.enabledtracking.com/ARWC2024/ and see all of the latest news at https://arworldseries.com/live. There will also be daily news updates on https://arworldseries.com/news
