Sorry, we didn't manage a daily update:  the best ever Challenge was just too frenetic!

The overall results are below - the big news is that the solo event was won by only the second woman to take on the course,  Helene Diamantides.  The team event was won by two-times bridesmaids Fat Al (and the Spirit of Vanhire).

The basic story of the race is here.  Full results spreadsheets:  Excel 2000  --  Excel 95

Look out for coverage on the race on/in:

• Gillette Sports (Cable/Satellite)    
• Sports Unlimited (Cable/Satellite)
• The Telegraph ("Weekend", Saturday edition, soon)
• Trail
• On the Hill
• 220 Triathlon
• Ultrafit

and numerous webzines

Note:  All-male teams do not qualify for official placings.  

Story
by John Williams

Deep Heat Western Isles Challenge 2000

Monday 8 May - The Gathering of the Clans

For the past three days now, a growing band of athletes, organisers,
volunteers and media have been congregating on the Hebridean island of South
Uist for the sixth running of Europe¹s premier adventure race, the Deep Heat
Western Isles Challenge.

With just a few hours to go until the stage-setting prologue on Barra, the
final team count is 14, with 13 individuals. Although numbers aren¹t
significantly up on last year, the quality of the field is generally the best ever, which is surprising considering the number of adventure races
that have been, are being, or about to be held around Britain and the globe
at this time.

Ahead of the athletes lie eleven islands and 250 miles of some of the most
extreme and beautiful terrain in the world. But before the event proper
comes the aforementioned Prologue, which comprises a short kayak, run and
bike, designed to give organisers and athletes alike an idea of who¹s who in
the pecking order. Introduced for the first time last year, this has been a
popular addition to the event and certainly sets the scene for the next
three days of racing.

So let's take a look at who¹s racing....

The odds on favourite for the solo event must be the 1998 winner, Marc Laithwaite
from Wigan. A national champion quadrathlete and internationally renowned
adventure racer, this is Marc¹s third visit to the islands and, according to
the man himself, he¹s never been in such good shape.

Despite Marc¹s obvious pedigree, victory is by no means assured, and his
main opposition comes in the form of first-timer, Helene Diamantides from
Kinross. The only woman racing solo, Helene¹s outstanding run splits as a team entrant last year - beating most of the men - has got everyone talking. Despite being
relatively new to biking and sea kayaking, she is a top mountain runner in this tough navigational race, and is bound to figure in the overall placings.

Opinion is somewhat divided as to who are favourites in team event.
Traditionally a closely fought race - with only minutes separating the top
three teams in 1998 - "Fat Al", the hugely experienced team from Inverness,
has the slight edge. Determined to win after finishing the bridesmaid by short margins on
two previous occasions, they have enlisted the help of a top Kiwi orienteer and hill runner, Greg Barbour,to aid their cause.

The weather today on South Uist is perfect for racing - hardly a breath of
wind and hazy sunshine, with more of the same forecast for the coming week.
The seas are about as calm as they get in these parts, and everyone¹s
rearing to go, so let the games begin!


Prologue Results - Misread and Mislead

On what should have been the simplest of stages in this year's Deep Heat
Western Isles Challenge, many of the top teams and top individuals made
rudimentary, and ultimately costly mistakes that could affect the final
outcome of the event.

It all started to go wrong for many when two of the Challenge¹s most
experienced paddlers (from top teams Fat Al and Wear The Fox Hat),
inexplicably decided to head up the wrong inlet. Thinking that these guys
must know their way around, all but four of the rest of the field abandoned
their set plans and followed blindly. The effect of this navigational error
was to add at least 30 minutes to wayward paddlers.

Ironically, three of the top soloists, favourite Marc Laithwaite,
Chris McSweeney and Tom Gibbs, having taken the right canoes route, now immediately misread their "secret checkpoint" notes and incurred a balancing 20 minute penalty by running down a road - an even more surprising error as road running is not a feature of the event... Despite the four men taking this "short cut", the fastest
run split still went to solo woman Helene Diamantides.

Ironically, Fat Al's runner/cyclist - the Kiwi ringer, Greg Barbour -
scored the fastest prologue time only to find out that it was his kayaker
who was one of the two culprits that led the field astray. With literally
minutes separating the top teams in recent years, this mistake could have
sealed the result before the event proper has even started.


Tuesday 9 May - Day One - Minutes separate the top teams, whilst Diamantides
starts to take control on the land.

In contrast to the previous day's brilliant sunshine, we awoke to a
fog-bound Sound of Barra (a "Sound" is the stretch of water between two islands). With visibility down to ten metres at times, this forced a safety mass paddle most of the way across the long sea route, with just the last two miles possible as a racing stage as the fog lifted on the Straights. 

For some, like Diamantides who is a newcomer to the water, this was good news. For the likes of the strong kayakers, it was a chance lost to make up some of that valuable time that they¹d lost the night
before - though the Challenge rules include a mechanism to scale up the kayak times for sections of the route affected by the weather.

As the day went on, the mist cleared to reveal two front runners in the team
event - Fat Al and Wrong Box, No Score. During the 12 hour hill and bike stages, the
lead changed no fewer than five times, with the land battle eventually being won by Fat Al.... but by less than a minute!

Diamantides took control of the solo event as she overhauled last year's
winner, Laithwaite on Eaval to pull out a good paper lead going into Day Two.
This lead would, however, be affected by the kayak compensation rules when computed at the end of the day. 

Day Two now beckons, and with huge running stages over the formidable
mountains of Harris and two massive kayak legs, tomorrow is the biggest and
hardest day for the solos and teams alike. From now on it's survival of the
fittest...


Wednesday 10 May - Day Two - Laithwaite retires injured and the gaps begin
to grow in the field.

The shock news here today was the enforced retirement of previous winner,
Marc Laithwaite. Whilst running almost neck-and-neck (on overall time) with solo female Helene Diamantides, Laithwaite was forced to quit this year¹s event near the end of the huge running stage across the mountains and moors of Harris. The culprit? A torn
hamstring just above the back of his knee. With a three hour hobble to the
nearest checkpoint, it was a sad and lonely exit for this former champion.

This has left Diamantides with a commanding lead, her nearest rivals
literally hours behind. But, although the outcome now seems a forgone
conclusion, the battle for the minor placings is only just hotting up. At
the foot of Clisham, the highest mountain in the Hebrides, both Chris McSweeney and Paul McClintock were in sight of each other.

The entertainment and expectation in the team event carried over from
yesterday with the members of Fat Al and Wrong Box putting on
an epic battle up front. Again, only minutes separated these two valiant
teams as they rolled into the finish on the stunning beach of Uig after a
final battle against a rising gale force wind.

At this, the end of the hardest day of the Challenge, the split of the teams
is now huge. The first teams were in and finished by just gone 6pm, but for
the tail-enders, their day ended in darkness close to 1 am; and with 5am
starts for the slowest, day three dawned way too early for many tired
bodies.


Thursday 11 May - Day Three - Victory for Diamantides, but who takes the
team prize?

Another colossal running stage greeted the competitors this morning as they
turned their back on the stunning coastline of West Harris and headed inland
once again. No less than three secret checkpoints first thing, with the first team runner charged with setting the logistics for all of them, ensured that heavily sleep-deprived brains had their thinking caps on early.

After swift changeovers and a short, cold swim followed by a long cycle into
a stiff headwind ­ it's always a headwind here ­ the competitors found
themselves in the Islands' capital, Stornoway, for a special mountain biking
orienteering stage; and as one member of the team threaded their way around
the narrow tracks of the Castle grounds, with the startling and confusing reappearance of trees after a total absence for three days, their paddling team mates arrived
in the harbour after the longest paddle of this year's event.

Although Diamantides had a huge lead on paper, she'd lost a chunk of time on
the day to the paddlers, and was now working hard on land to overhaul the
leader McSweeney before the finish at the Butt of Lewis. But, in a style
that we had become accustomed to over the past few days, Diamantides emerged
from the desolate bogland of North Lewis in the lead and duly crossed the
line to not only take the stage win, but the overall title for 2000.

After over three days of racing, and with just two checkpoints and less than 20 miles to go, the team event was still wide open. As the runners headed into the Lewis wasteland, Fat Al and Wrong Box were neck-and-neck. But in the end,
experience and local knowledge won through with Alec Keith (of Fat Al) making a crucial
tactical route decision that won his team their first Challenge title at the third try.

Fat Al's victory was a popular one with spectators and athletes alike, but
they were graceful in their victory and it was congratulations all round as
the champagne popped at this, the northwesterly extremity of Europe.

Whoever said it¹s the journey not the destination that matters, must have
had a premonition of the Western Isles Challenge 2000. For every one of the participants, the spectacular route and weather meant a memorable
race. For Diamantides and the members of the Fat Al team, the memories can include the realisation of a grand ambition. 

The only downside s that they have to defend against ever hotter competition next year ...