Mbabane - Swazi Xtreme

The Swazi Xtreme has a proud tradition of challenging competitors with race routes that incorporate awesome natural features, friendly rural people and an atmosphere of risk and reward.

It helps that the Kingdom of Swaziland is an ideal venue for adventure racing. Mountains, valleys, rivers, waterfalls, caves, cliffs, forests, plains and hundreds of kilometres of meandering foot and cattle paths are squeezed into a compact area of 17,363 sq km.

The event has also been consistently innovative in its mission to keep the ADVENTURE in adventure racing and to avoid this becoming an elitist ultradistance athletic sport. Every year the event attracts seemingly ordinary people, who step up to the line to experience the thrill of doing what is undeniably EXTRAORDINARY.

This year is no exception. The major new focus for this year's event will be shift from the shortest route, fastest time approach, to one which will have teams competing to do the maximum distance and clip the most control points within the allocated time.

The general race route will be defined by a sequence of Compulsory Control Points (CP's), which all teams will need to visit. Teams in the hunt for a win will be keen to find a scattering of Optional CP's. These optional points will be tucked away in the most exciting and adventurous corners of the race footprint, demanding both skill and speed to reach. What this means is that top teams will have more time out in the field to push themselves to the limit, testing their navigational and strategic team strengths, whilst the slower teams who merely wish to complete the event have the liberty of moving just between the compulsory control points.

Strategy and teamwork will become paramount, with decision on when to go straight and rest and when to zig-zag to collect points being the likely difference between winning and losing teams. Not only will navigational ability be essential, but the ability to estimate speed and distance will keep heads buzzing well after bodies get tired.

This new race format increases the likelihood of a higher finishing rate for the event and will increase the tempo up front as leading teams will constantly concertina back into contact with each other throughout the race.