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Spartan Race to bring Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship event to Serpentine-Jarrahdale

Ben SmithComment News

ONE of the world’s biggest obstacle course races is headed to Serpentine Jarrahdale, and organisers have promised it will be their biggest Australian event yet.

Bolinda Vale in Keysbrook will host Spartan Race Australia’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (APAC) from November 23-26, with competitors from around the world expected.

Spartan Races are physical-endurance races, involving numerous tough obstacles over a variety of terrains with different distances and classes catering for all athletes.

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As the biggest Australian event yet, the upcoming APAC event will feature a stand-alone kids event, three different distance races – 7km, 14km and 21km – catering to all levels of competitors and a 12-hour ‘hurricane heat’, a group challenge focusing on resilience.

Spartan Race Australia chief executive Max DeLacy said he was excited to bring the event to WA and it was by far its most anticipated event yet.

“It’s the first international Spartan event that’s happening in Australia and it’s the most ambitious event we’ve done for sure,” he said.

“We’ve never done a four day event before, everything from how big the concept is to how much money is being put into it is ambitious.”

Mr DeLacy said the size of the event meant a large internation contingent was expected, with more than 1000 overseas registrations so far.

“We’re expecting anywhere up to 1000 international racers, we already know we’re getting hundreds of people coming over from Singapore from Malaysia, from Japan, from Korea, we already have teams who have set up and are coming over from the US and Europe,” he said.

“It’s not the sort of thing we can do every year or all the time, so we want people to help us to show international racers from around the world what it’s about.”

He said the Bolinda Vale property was perfect for the event and admitted the first time he saw it he thought he was in Switzerland.

“The whole property has incredible variation of forested and beautiful scenery and great water obstacles, it’s got damns, creeks, but it’s not muddy water; it’s crystal clear,” he said.

“The view from the top of the hill is almost worth the gut-busting effort to get up there.”

Minister for Tourism Paul Papalia said the State Government, who is sponsoring the event, was happy to have helped bring the event to WA.

“The State Government invests in events because they provide a time-based reason for people to visit WA and provide a surge of visitor spending; in this case nearly $1.5 million,” he said.

For more information visit http://www.spartanrace.com.au/en.

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