After a gruelling six-day journey across Abu Dhabi emirate, a tired but elated Richard Ussher led a team to the narrowest of victories in the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge for the second consecutive year.
Team Desert Islands headed the field from start to finish but their lead was never more than a few minutes and at the beginning of the final day was a scant 63 seconds over the team skippered by his 2007 teammate, Gordon Walker.
Ussher's team extended their advantage to four minutes after the biking, running and rope-work section on Jebel Hafeet yesterday then faced an anxious 27km final mountain bike leg to Jahili Fort in Al Ain, knowing they could lose the race if they crashed.
"We almost rode our own race, out to the side of the bunch and trying to stay out of trouble," he said.
"Things can get pretty ugly pretty quickly in the bunch and there were a couple of close calls."
Ussher and his wife, Elina, won the inaugural Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge with Walker last year but faced far tougher competition this year, not least from Team Nike, the pre-race favourites, who finished fifth.
"It's great to come back and defend the title. The team from last year came first and second," Ussher said.
"I didn't think it was one thing that got us through. We were the most consistent team. The pace was much faster and you had to strategise a lot more and do more preparation.
"We all had situations where people weren't feeling very good, particularly on the desert section. A lot of the time, we felt the race was a little out of our control but we just really stayed focused.
"Gordon put together a super team. They had their issues too and if they had a little more luck roll their way, it could have been them."
The Usshers had to pay their own way to compete in last year's challenge and would have found themselves significantly out of pocket if they had failed to finish near the top. Even after winning the world's highest-paying adventure race last year, the couple only finished paying off debts from the 2007 event last month.
Their half of the US$40,000 prize money, shared with team members Jarad Kholar and Jay Henry, will be used to "pay off a bit of the mortgage" on their home in New Zealand. He said he hoped to defend his title again next year but that depended on finding sponsorship.
Walker, of Team New Zealand, said failure to find a major sponsor had made taking part this year expensive but the $25,000 second prize would recoup their costs.
"It was definitely a stronger field. We had a couple of things that didn't go the best - but that's just racing. We had the horsepower but we just didn't adapt to our situation," he said.
The pace along a 100km-plus run through the dunes of the Empty Quarter near Liwa was a dramatic change from 2007, with the average speed of the leading teams up from 5kmh to 7kmh.
Matthew Boucher, who managed the race for the Abu Dhabi Tourist Authority, said the intention for the 2009 Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge was to be even bigger and better.
"We'll aim to have 50 teams and we'll also aim to have an entirely Emirati team," he said.
The race this year had included a mountain biking leg on the wildlife preserve of Sir Bani Yas Island, the former private island of Sheikh Zayed, the late founder of the nation, and he said they were already discussing what to introduce to the race next year.
jhenzell@thenational.ae
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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'The Sky is Everywhere'
Director:Josephine Decker
Stars:Grace Kaufman, Pico Alexander, Jacques Colimon
Rating:2/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
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Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
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hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Power: 480hp at 6,500rpm
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Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 10.4L/100km
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The biog
Name: Salem Alkarbi
Age: 32
Favourite Al Wasl player: Alexandre Oliveira
First started supporting Al Wasl: 7
Biggest rival: Al Nasr
