Populous 13

13

SURFING HAPPY GILMORE IS SMILING AGAIN

ULTRA RUNNING THE WORLD’S MOST BRUTAL MARATHON

SAILING NON-STOP, SOLO, AROUND THE WORLD

GOLF PLAYING THE 850-MILE COURSE

Sledgehammer remember that 1986 – at the popstart, video blood for the pumps PetertoGabriel the beat song of the Sledgehammer music.

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Photos: Laura Radford

AC/DC, Iron Maiden, The Clash, Ramones… there have been some very cool and very classic band T-shirt designs over the years. With this in mind, Populous’s London office asked employees to design a T-shirt for their very own musicians in POP Band. Here is the winning result, created by Ben Colley and Collette Egan.

“The inspiration for the logo came from visualising music as a living organism,” explains Colley. “If you remember that 1986 pop video for the Peter Gabriel song

02 WELCOME

Hello We live in a world where every convenience is available and our comfort is a prime consideration.

However, within this pampered society, a golden age of endurance sport is currently unfolding, testing competitors to their absolute physical and mental limits. Long-distance running, cycling and swimming events (and often all three combined) are pulling in amateur athletes like never before.

The easier ones drag you round your local park while the gruesomely tough ones take you right out of your comfort zone and into distant deserts, mountain ranges, arctic wastes.

This issue of Populous magazine celebrates all such feats of endurance, and all the various disciplines they demand. It’s not just running, biking and swimming that people throw themselves into – there’s rowing, kayaking, sleddogging, sailing, driving, obstacle racing. Whatever your preferred form of punishment, it is amply catered for.

We have features on the Marathon des Sables (a 156-mile ultra marathon across the Moroccan Sahara), the Atlantic Challenge (rowing non-stop from Africa to the Caribbean), the Vendée Globe (a non-stop yacht race that circumnavigates the planet), even the motor sport of endurance racing. There are stories of personal endurance, too, overcoming hardship and bouncing back to glory: the female surfer Stephanie Gilmore, for example, who recovered from a vicious assault to reach the top of her sport again.

One final thing that we’re sure will endure is your enjoyment of our magazine.

Editor-in-chief: Rod Sheard Editorial team: Chris Lee Michelle Morgan Matt Grace Populous magazine is published by: Alma Media International London, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 20 8944 1155 Email: info@almamedia.co.uk Web: www.almamedia.co.uk Publisher: Tony Richardson tony@almamedia.co.uk Editor: Dominic Bliss dominic@almamedia.co.uk (Twitter @DominicBliss) Art direction and design: Deep www.deep.co.uk Images: Cover: Our cover features world champion surfer Stephanie Gilmore, photographed by Morgan Maassen www.morganmaassen.com Ben Duffy & Talisker Getty Images FIA WEC Gabi Tomescu/ AdrenalMedia.com Stephen Harvey © Alma Media International Ltd 2015 All material is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of Alma Media International is strictly forbidden.

The greatest care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of information in this magazine at the time of going to press, but we accept no responsibility for omissions or errors. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Alma Media International or Populous.

PRIDE

ESTADIO BBVA BANCOMER, THE NEW HOME OF CF MONTERREY IN GUADALUPE.

Rod Sheard Senior principal

Tel: +44 (0) 20 8874 7666 Email: popmag@populous.com Web: www.populous.com

13

SURFING HAPPY GILMORE IS SMILING AGAIN

ULTRA RUNNING THE WORLD’S MOST BRUTAL MARATHON

SAILING NON-STOP, SOLO, AROUND THE WORLD

01 Covers _Issue 13 paginated.indd 2-3

GOLF PLAYING THE 850-MILE COURSE

28/08/2015 09:38

ISSUE THIRTEEN

Populous magazine is sent to our clients and friends around the sporting world.

PEFC/16-44-002

CONTENTS 03

START

Contents 4

LEFT FIELD

Could we end up using glass floors for five-a-side soccer, badminton, squash, volleyball, even athletics?

14

ALONE ON A WIDE, WIDE SEA

ENDURING LOVE

Endurance sport is more popular now than it’s ever been. Ultra marathons, bike races, triathlons…Why do so many of us feel the need to go the distance?

18

OUT OF THE ASHES

Hampered by a warring homeland, and a total lack of facilities and equipment, the rise of the Afghan national cricket team is the stuff of Hollywood movies. Book author and film-maker Tim Albone tells the tale.

8

HAPPY GILMORE

Stephanie Gilmore was the world’s top female surfer when a random attack shattered her arm and set her career back years. We tell the remarkable story of her fight back to the top.

20

12

ARE WE THERE YET?

Matthew Jones, former journalist at Top Gear, explains the invaluable contribution that endurance motor racing has made to the domestic car market.

24

OPERATION DESERT STORM

HELL ON HIGH WATER

30

32

A 156-mile quest across the Sahara desert, while carrying all your own food and equipment. Is the Marathon des Sables really the “toughest foot race on Earth”?

Vicious storms, salt rash, solitude, hallucinations, sharks and barnacles… the Atlantic Challenge rowing race is an odyssey of ocean endurance.

FINISH

The Vendée Globe – a non-stop, singlehanded, round-the-world yacht race – has broken many of the greatest ever yachtsmen. Not all have lived to tell the tale.

6

26

WATCH THE BIRDIE

It’s the world’s longest golf course – 18 holes, par-71, and 850 miles across the Australian outback.

Just beware of the ball-thieving crow.

28

NO WETSUIT REQUIRED

Populous senior principal Andrew James has a burning passion for surfing – as long as the water’s warm.

HOW TO GROW A FANBASE

All big cities want to be home to major sporting teams. But surely it takes generations for new teams to cultivate loyal fan bases?

Not if you follow a few golden rules.

POPHISTORY

The 1951 Festival of Britain was a much needed morale boost for post-World War II Britain. Populous forerunner Howard Lobb was a key architect.

04 LEFT FIELD

LEFT FIELD SOCKS FOR JOCKS WHO EVER IMAGINED the humble sock might prove to be so useful? A new American smart sock has been designed for runners which can monitor your running cadence, your foot landing pattern, your pace, your number of steps, your distance and your speed, instantly relaying all this information to your smartphone.

It works thanks to pressure sensors embedded in the soles of the socks, and an anklet that you wear around one ankle and tuck under the collar of the sock. You pair the anklet to an app in your smartphone, set your workout goals and running style, and start running. The app then gives you feedback during your run in the form of spoken cues through your headphones.

“You’re failing to land on ball,” it might warn you if you’re running with too much heel strike. “Pick up the pace!” it might command if you’re flagging.

The manufacturers say the great advantage of their product is that it “allows you to make adjustments to your running form, improve performance, cheer you up and push you to reach your goal.”

“Our feet are subjected to tremendous impact forces during running,” they explain.

“A large number of runners sustain injuries including runner’s knee, plantar fasciitis and ankle related injuries. Studies have shown that by making adjustments to running form, such as foot landing technique and the proper cadence, foot impact forces may be reduced.”

Made primarily of nylon and polyester, the socks are machine washable. But they’ll wear out fairly quickly. The manufacturers estimate that if you’re going for three or four runs a week, a pair of socks will last three months.

PRESSURE SENSORS EMBEDDED IN THE SOCKS, AND AN ANKLET, LINK TO AN APP IN YOUR SMARTPHONE.

THE DESIGN OF SPORTS PRODUCTS AND EQUIPMENT IS EVOLVING FASTER THAN EVER. HERE WE INTRODUCE YOU TO SOME OF THE MOST EXCITING INNOVATIONS.

LEFT FIELD 05

REDRAWING THE LINES

A GLASS FLOOR THAT USES LED LIGHTS TO REDRAW THE COURT LINES DEPENDING ON WHICH SPORT IS BEING PLAYED.

INDOOR SPORTS HALLS are extremely adaptable. On a busy day they might be used for five-a-side soccer, basketball, badminton, volleyball, hockey or tennis. The only downside, however, is that to accommodate all these different sports they are emblazoned with a confusing array of multicoloured lines and boxes. One German company has devised an ingenious solution: a glass floor that uses LED lights to redraw the court lines at the flick of a switch, depending on the sport.

The glass is similar to that used in car windscreens – and strong enough to take the weight of even the heaviest sportsmen. It sits atop an aluminium frame which contains the LED lights. Etching on the surface of the glass reduces any reflection while burnt-in ceramic dots ensure there’s enough grip.

So far the glass floor has been used for squash, for the floor of a school gym, and in

the studio of British TV channel BT Sport. But ASB has bold plans for the future. They’ve suggested running tracks with flashing lights that act as pacemakers for the athletes. Their floors can display scores, match statistics and sponsors’ logos.

“Using LED panels, the whole floor can in theory be turned into one gigantic screen that could show adverts during breaks [of play],” explained a company spokesman.

There are clever applications outside of sport, too. ASB see the potential for installing their floors in public buildings.

“Hotel lobbies and information counters from where directions can be displayed under the floor,” they suggest. “Directions for emergency exits that only appear in case of an emergency; under-floor mood lighting for spas; many more opportunities are waiting to be discovered.”

28 ENDURANCE SPORTS

ENDURING LOVE ENDURANCE SPORTS ENDURANCE SPORT IS MORE POPULAR NOW THAN IT’S EVER BEEN, WITH MANY LONG-DISTANCE MARATHONS, BIKE RACES AND TRIATHLONS ENORMOUSLY OVER-SUBSCRIBED. WHY DO WE ALL FEEL THE NEED TO GO THE DISTANCE?

ENDURANCE SPORTS 07

“WE’VE TAKEN ALL THE EMERGENCIES OUT OF OUR LIVES. SO WE HAVE TO CREATE THESE EMERGENCIES. RUNNING THROUGH THE WOODS DURING THE NIGHT – THAT’S A SIMULATED EMERGENCY SITUATION.” AUSTRIAN CYCLIST Christoph Strasser is all too familiar with the saddle of his bike. It must be perfectly moulded to the contours of his behind. In 2014 he spent seven whole days astride it, racing non-stop across the entire USA in an annual event known as Race Across America. So desperate was he to break the record that some nights he got less than half an hour of shut-eye. Pedalling west to east, from California to Maryland, he completed over 3,000 miles in seven days and 16 hours. There was no prize money on offer.

Strasser is part of a growing tribe. From cycling, triathlons and ultra marathons to swimming, sled-dog racing and kayaking, endurance sport has never been so popular.

Here’s a little taster of the various sadomasochistic ordeals on offer around the world: in North Africa there’s the Marathon des Sables, a 156-mile footrace across the Sahara Desert; Australia has the Crocodile Trophy, a 750-mile mountain bike race; USA has the Badwater 135 (a footrace across Death Valley) and the Iditarod (a 1,000-mile dog-sled race across Alaska); Europe has the Enduroman Arch to Arc Triathlon which involves running from London to the coast, swimming across the English Channel to France and then cycling to Paris; at the top of the planet there’s the North Pole Marathon; at the bottom the Antarctic Ice Marathon; across the middle the Atlantic Challenge rowing race. You get the idea. Long distances and gruesome conditions.

But why do people put themselves through such torture? How can they possibly enjoy it?

Fitness, weight loss, mid-life crisis, charity, the ability to train while commuting… these are all factors. But then other sports offer some of these benefits. When it comes to longdistance endurance races, there must surely be more atavistic reasons for their popularity.

Christopher McDougall is author of running books Born to Run and Natural Born Heroes. He is convinced endurance running is perfectly suited to the human body. “It’s always been in our DNA,” he says. “We tried the gym

CHRISTOPHER MCDOUGALL, AUTHOR OF BORN TO RUN AND NATURAL BORN HEROES.

and the hyper-muscular model for a bunch of years. But it’s not who we are as human animals.

So we’ve turned back to what our species does naturally and really well.”

Mollycoddled as we are in the Western World, with our sedentary office jobs and comfortable homes, many of us are bored by sterile gym environments. McDougall believes we now want sport to push us outside of our comfort zones. “We’ve taken all the emergencies out of our lives,” he explains. “So we have to create these emergencies. Running through the woods during the night – that’s a simulated emergency situation.”

He has a point. In the developed world, at least, we no longer hunt for our food or battle with neighbouring tribes. For several generations most of us have avoided military conscription. So, come the weekend, we’re searching for adventure in the form of a marathon, a triathlon, or a bike race.

Lahcen Ahansal knows all about adventure. He has won the Marathon des Sables ultra marathon ten times, more than anyone else. Born to a nomad family in the Moroccan Sahara, he sees how white-collar Westerners are attracted to the intrepidity of endurance sport.

After all, he’s raced alongside hundreds of them over the years.

“People work in offices, live in comfortable homes, drive their cars, use lifts instead of stairs,” he says. “They don’t move at all. They feel they’re lacking something in their lives.

They want to race to feel alive. They want an adventure, and want to reconnect with nature.”

McDougall sees long-distance races as a connection with both nature and one’s soul; almost a spiritual experience. “Six hours in the woods, largely by yourself, you’re going to come out a little bit different from when you went in,” he suggests.

But he stresses there’s a far more pragmatic reason, too: being young and male is far less of an advantage in endurance sport than in other types of sport. He cites the example of 64-year-old Diana Nyad who was the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage; and 41-year-old Pam Reed who beat the entire male field in the Badwater 135 ultra marathon across Death Valley in 2002.

“A lot of power sports were created by men for men,” he says. “Football, basketball, baseball, even short running events – that’s where men shine. One of the reasons we’re seeing a surge is because these endurance sports equalise the playing field for women.”

Finally, there’s a chemical reason why some people love endurance sport: it’s called endorphins. Todd Crandell, a triathlete from Ohio, is very familiar with the joys of endorphins.

He used to be a serious alcoholic and drug addict, dodging death on many occasions.

Then, in the 1990s, he managed to redirect all his destructive energy into the positive energy of competing in triathlons.

“I’ve had people accuse me of taking my addiction to booze and drugs and just turning it into another addiction,” Todd admits. “I tell them: ‘Yeah, well at least it’s a good addiction’.”

SURFING 09

SURFING WHEN THE WORLD’S GREATEST FEMALE SURFER WAS RANDOMLY ASSAULTED, SHE FEARED IT WOULD END HER CAREER. BUT, AFTER FIGHTING HER WAY BACK TO THE TOP OF HER SPORT, STEPHANIE GILMORE IS HAPPY AGAIN, AS JOHN LEWIS FINDS OUT.

STEPHANIE GILMORE WAS ON A ROLL. It was Christmas 2010 and, just weeks earlier, she had won professional surfing’s world championship.

At 22 years of age, she was the world’s best female surfer for the fourth year in a row. In her pocket was a five-year, US$5million contract with American surf wear giants Quiksilver, making her the highest paid woman in her sport.

Then a random attack changed everything.

After an evening out at the cinema, Stephanie was returning to her apartment in Coolangatta, in the Australian state of Queensland, when she noticed a man lurking near the stairwell of her building. Suddenly he ran at her with a metal bar. “The first time, he hit me in the head,” she says. “I saw blood everywhere. I put up my wrist to protect myself, and the second hit snapped my ulna and tore ligaments in my wrist. I looked down and saw a big lump on my wrist. My body went into survival mode. At the time, I didn’t feel pain.”

Her assailant, a man with a history of paranoid schizophrenia, was captured soon after the attack and, in 2012, was sentenced to four years in prison. Stephanie, meanwhile, had to completely rebuild her life. “I had five stitches in my head, a plaster cast on my arm,” she says. “I knew I would heal, but my concerns were more emotional than physical. For starters, I wasn’t allowed to surf for six weeks. That’s longer than I’ve been out of the water since I was a baby.” >>

10 SURFING

For weeks she shared her two-bedroom apartment with family and friends to protect her.

She’d sleep with the lights on, constantly checking the doors were locked. After five weeks – against her doctor’s advice – she was back in the water, but the trauma and the time away from training had taken its toll. Her limbs were weak, and she couldn’t control the board like she used to.

“I remember sitting on the beach, putting the board over my head and just crying,” she says. “I thought, ‘Wow. I’m just not going to win this year.’ I was rattled. My whole rhythm was off. I had to completely relearn everything from scratch.” She lost her number one ranking and world champion title.

The World Surf League is the professional tour for the world’s best female and male surfers, with athletes competing in a variety of international venues, from the Atlantic coasts of Spain and France to the Pacific coasts of Micronesia; from Brazil to South Africa, Queensland to California. Australians and Americans dominate the sport, with South Africans and Brazilians occasionally making a challenge. In the

female side of the sport, Australians have pretty much had a stranglehold since the late 1980s. As well as Stephanie, world champions include Pam Burridge, Wendy Botha, Pauline Menczer, Layne Beachley and Chelsea Georgeson.

As the Australian national anthem says, this is a nation “girt by sea”. And, like many from Queensland’s Gold Coast and New South Wales’s Rainbow Bay, Stephanie virtually grew up in the water. Her father, who worked at a nearby wildlife reserve, still surfs every day. Stephanie, who describes herself as “a total tomboy until the age of about 16”, was naturally sporty, excelling in soccer, field hockey and Australian rules football. By the age of 10 she was on a body board every day. “Trying to master one of the most powerful elements on the planet can be daunting,” she remembers. “A lot of Australians have a big respect for the ocean. You learn how to read it.”

By the age of 12 she was winning so many weekend competitions that Australian surf wear brand Rip Curl had offered to sponsor her. In 2006 she turned professional and, a year later, she was world champion.

“THE FIRST TIME, HE HIT ME IN THE HEAD. I SAW BLOOD EVERYWHERE. THE SECOND HIT SNAPPED MY ULNA AND TORE LIGAMENTS IN MY WRIST.”

SURFER

The World Surf League sees competitors performing a series of stunts on the wave, usually in pairs. Each surfer is rated – like figure skaters, or Olympic divers – by a panel of judges who analyse how competently each manoeuvre is executed using strict criteria. One is “speed, power and flow”; another is “degree of difficulty”; others are “variety” and “combination”. Judges even have to rate whether or not a manoeuvre is “innovative and progressive”.

Stephanie admits that the injury from the assault – and her slow recovery – forced her to reevaluate her attitude towards competitive surfing. “I had to reassess why I’m doing this,” she says. “My parents aren’t crazy, driven exOlympians. I realised that I went into surfing because I love it. And I had to do everything in my power to get that back.”

In the months after the attack, she started traveling to places like Indonesia and Mexico with friends, not to train, but simply to enjoy surfing.

She was still only 23 years old. “Once I realised that I was doing what I loved, I started to work harder,” she says. “I think 2011 was the toughest year of my life, but it was also the most valuable. I realised that no one was expecting anything from me. So I trained longer and longer and put in more hours in the ocean than ever before.”

By 2012, some in the professional surfing community had already written off Stephanie’s career. But throughout the year she started to excel again, eventually regaining her position as world champion. “It was like a fairy tale,” she said. She became world champion again in 2014.

This year her ranking has dropped because of a knee injury.

“At the end of the day, I really, truly love what I do. I’ve never taken for granted this life that I get to live. Travelling the world is the best thing that any human can do. If I have any advice, it’s just to make sure you keep learning. Stay open to the world and all the opportunities that arrive, and never underestimate yourself.”

“I REMEMBER SITTING ON THE BEACH, PUTTING THE BOARD OVER MY HEAD AND JUST CRYING. I WAS RATTLED. MY WHOLE RHYTHM WAS OFF. I HAD TO COMPLETELY RELEARN EVERYTHING FROM SCRATCH.”

SURFS UP Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.

9

12 ENDURANCE MOTOR RACING SCRATCH THROUGH Formula One’s political brawls and profligate hospitality suites, and eventually you’ll find a kernel of technological innovation that has bettered the wider world of motoring. A tyre development here or a use of lightweight material there. But, mostly, these technologies are used to improve other racing cars and only find their way to the public through Ferrari and McLaren dealerships.

Endurance motor racing is a little different. Featuring teams of multiple drivers over long distances, and famous for races such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours Nurburgring, it provides unrelenting, unforgiving laboratories for motoring technology. The machinery in, say, a Le Mans prototype can’t just work – it has to keep working, day and night, whatever the weather, at maximum attack. Which

is why today’s road cars – from Renaults to RollsRoyces – owe so much to the sport.

The sport’s contributions began in the 1930s. Le Mans, a byword for endurance racing, is one of the world’s fastest circuits. At least it was until chicanes were added to the 3.7-mile Mulsanne straight in 1990. But in its original form, this was a workroom for automotive aerodynamics. Alfa Romeo was first, adding a slippery coupe body to its 8C 2900B to nibble at the lap times. But the big development came in 1964 when the French Panhard LM64 used huge fins for stability, and had the world’s first rear diffuser (an aerodynamic device beneath the car that produces more downforce and grip to the road). We now find diffusers on everything from today’s RenaultSport Clio to the McLaren P1.

Luckily for the Panhard team, the tyre

ENDURANCE MOTOR RACING IF YOU LIKE YOUR MOTOR SPORT LONG AND RELENTLESS THEN YOU’LL LOVE ENDURANCE MOTOR RACING. MATTHEW JONES, FORMERLY OF TOP GEAR MAGAZINE, EXPLAINS ITS INVALUABLE CONTRIBUTION TO DOMESTIC CAR TECHNOLOGY.

technology to support high-speed experiments had already been made in 1951. The problem is that when tyres get too hot they tend to explode.

And crossply tyres – the choice of early racers – liked to get hot. Michelin had been working on an alternative called the radial tyre for a while after discovering that they build up less heat, which meant they lasted longer and absorbed less power. Ideal for a Le Mans car. And precisely why, in 1951, a Lancia Aurelia wearing a set won the under-2000cc class by more than a lap. In the years immediately following, Dunlop had a radial for Jaguars, and Pirelli followed. By 1952 they were being made for everything from trucks to Triumphs, and they remain nearly universal today.

In 1953, endurance racing gave road cars one of their biggest gifts. Jaguar was racing C-Types at Le Mans and it was outgunned.

Ferrari’s entry, for example, had an engine 700cc bigger with twice as many cylinders, but it was fitted with drum brakes. Unlike road cars of the era, the Jaguar had disc brakes, which the team had been developing with Dunlop based on a combination of early car designers’ efforts and

ENDURANCE MOTOR RACING 13 aircraft technology. The Ferrari drums could match the stopping power of the C-Types’ discs but they couldn’t match their staying power. The Jaguars finished first, second and fourth.

Winning driver, Duncan Hamilton, said: “The disc brakes gave us a great advantage and we knew they’d last the 24 hours without having to be nursed. At the end of the Mulsanne straight, we Jaguar drivers could bring the cars’ speed down from 150mph to 30mph in less than 300 yards.”

The same year, Austin Healey fitted them to their 100S; then in 1955 Citroen used them on their DS. Triumph, Jensen and Jaguar followed suit, and soon so did everyone else.

Now they’re carved into the masonry of automotive technology and their design survives pretty much unchanged.

But it’s not just the historic stuff that’s made endurance racing relevant. The sport’s rule-makers, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, allow more technical creativity than Formula One’s legislators, encouraging the use of different power sources. Precisely why events such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans have been the

car-makers’ perfect test bed where they can squeeze out as much speed from as little fuel as possible.

In 2006 endurance racing ushered in the age of diesel. It may not be the sexiest innovation, but manufacturers underestimated it at their peril. Between 2006 and 2014, every car that won Le Mans was diesel-powered. Diesel’s proliferation in endurance racing is largely thanks to Audi; while it wasn’t the first company to race diesel, it was the first to throw millions into a prototype, and one that would obsessively leverage its road-going TDI (turbo-charged direct injection) models. But the logic was as sound as the marketing: the fuel has around 15 per cent more power density than petrol, offering more miles per gallon. Diesel-engine design is also far more robust than that of petrol, making it perfect for extreme tuning.

Throwing it through the World Endurance Championship (currently eight races a year) for nearly a decade has seen injection, turbocharger and hybridisation technology develop rapidly. Just as rapid have been the giant leaps in efficiency, refinement

Endurance racing loosely involves a team of two or more drivers covering either a set distance in laps, or attempting to drive the greatest distance over a set time. Most famous of all is the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), currently with eight races, all at least six hours long, at circuits in the UK, France, Germany, USA, Japan, China and Bahrain. The

and performance of the road cars, which is why, today in Europe, Audi sells more diesels than it does petrols.

What stops you winning endurance races isn’t going slowly, it’s breaking down. And the demands put on experimental technologies can determine their fortune in as little as a day.

In 1989 Panoz entered a car called the Q9, which used a petrol/electric hybrid system, but the batteries weren’t up to scratch. It took Toyota until 1997 to come up with a system it would happily fit to road cars. On the other hand, space-age technology like the digital rear-view mirror and matrix LED lights fitted to this year’s Audi R18 e-tron were given one last test to prove that they were tenable for production cars. Which is why you’ll see them both on the next R8.

Formula One may be the motor sport that everyone’s watching but endurance racing is the one that everyone’s driving.

Populous’s motor sport team has designed tracks and facilities at race venues such as Silverstone, UK, and Dubai Autodrome, UAE.

most famous is the 24 Hours of Le Mans in northern France.

There are four classes in the WEC. Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) is where you’ll find major car manufacturers such as Audi, Porsche, Toyota and Nissan competing with their purpose-built racers. Most drivers like Anthony Davidson and Romain Dumas are thoroughbred

endurance racers, though some (Mark Webber, Nico Hülkenberg) have arrived from Formula One. LMP2 is a slower class with a limit on engine size. GT cars (with its two classes, LMGTE-PRO and LMGTE-AM) are loosely based on road-going models, mainly comprising Aston Martins, Corvettes and Ferraris.

14

OCEAN SAILING

ALONE ON A WIDE, WIDE SEA OCEAN SAILING THE VENDÉE GLOBE – A NON-STOP, SINGLEHANDED, ROUND-THE-WORLD YACHT RACE – DEMANDS EXTREME ENDURANCE AND HAS BROKEN MANY OF THE GREATEST EVER YACHTSMEN. NOT ALL HAVE LIVED TO TELL THE TALE, AS BEN COLLEY DISCOVERS.

SINGLE-HANDED yacht racing can be a lonely business, especially if you decide to tackle arguably the toughest yachting race of all: the nonstop, round-the-world Vendée Globe. Not only must you be a technically brilliant sailor, but you must also endure months of solitude, vicious storms, errant sea mammals and possible shipwreck, as these competitors prove. Some have even died.

Featuring monohull Open 60-class yachts, the race starts and ends in Les Sables-d’Olonne, on France’s west coast. It circumnavigates the globe via the Cape of Good Hope, east through the Southern Ocean and around Cape Horn. The rules really sort the wheat from the chaff. All competitors must have experience in single-handed racing, and must pass medical and survival courses. They are allowed to stop at anchor but cannot draw alongside other vessels or landing points (except to return to the start during the first 10 days). No form of outside assistance is allowed. >>

OCEAN SAILING 15

ALO ON WID WID SEA LASHED ACROSS THE FACE BY A HEAVY COIL OF ROPE, FRENCHMAN BERTRAND DE BROC BIT DOWN ON HIS OWN TONGUE SO HARD HE HAD NO OPTION BUT TO SEW UP THE WOUND HIMSELF, WITH ONLY THE RACE DOCTOR’S RADIOED INSTRUCTIONS TO GUIDE HIM.

16

OCEAN SAILING

UNWANTED AID 2012-13, Auckland Islands Bernard Stamm, an experienced Swiss sailor making his third attempt at the Vendée Globe, encountered trouble with his hydro-generators near New Zealand and decided to anchor close to the Auckland Islands to fix them. Unable to get his yacht stable enough to carry out repairs and, and with the boat dragging its anchor, he moored close to a nearby scientific vessel.

Unfortunately for Stamm, an enthusiastic Russian sailor jumped down from the boat to offer him assistance, immediately disqualifying him from the race. After repairing his ship, Stamm continued on to the finish line regardless.

SEAFOOD DIET 2000-01, Stewart Island

CHAMPAGNE MOMENT

BROKEN LEG

1996-97, Southern Ocean

2008-09, South of Cape Leeuwin

During a powerful storm, Pete Goss, a former British Royal Marine, received a distress call that fellow sailor Raphaël Dinelli had capsized in the freezing waters of the Southern Ocean.

Goss sacrificed his position in the competition and turned his ship around to sail 160 miles through hurricane winds before he found the Frenchman who climbed aboard Goss’s boat clutching a bottle of champagne. Afterwards, Goss and Dinelli became firm friends, competing as a partnership in other endurance sailing events. Goss was awarded France’s prestigious Legion d’honneur in recognition of his bravery and selflessness.

Halfway through changing a sail, Yann Elies was struck by a huge wave that threw him across his boat, shattering his femur. He managed to radio for help but was then forced to endure 48 hours of agony while the rescue team travelled to his position. Lying on his bunk, he was only two metres from his medical kit and food supplies, yet so badly injured he was unable to reach them.

Despite the ordeal, Elies was sailing again six months later.

MAN UNDERBOARD 1996-97, Southern Ocean British Competitor Tony Bullimore’s capsized yacht had been adrift in the Southern Ocean for five days when the Australian Navy finally located it. Knocking on the hull, the search team were amazed to hear Bullimore knock back. He had survived in an air pocket in the boat’s living quarters, with only a chocolate bar and a small amount of water to keep him alive, and a rapidly diminishing supply of oxygen.

He was pulled from the water suffering from hypothermia and dehydration, and would eventually lose two toes to frostbite.

Race-leader Yves Parlier lost his mast in hurricane winds just before Christmas. Determined to finish the race – even with half a planet left to sail – he sent a defiant message to race control: “I have dismasted.

I am going on. I do not need assistance.” It took him three weeks to crawl to Stewart Island, near New Zealand, where he spent another ten days repairing the mast, using items he found washed up on the beach. In the process he lost time and vital food supplies, eventually forced to survive on seaweed.

“I’d collected about 400 kilos of seaweed, so it was just everywhere and there was that smell and taste,” he said. “One evening I had to force myself to eat.

I really didn’t want to eat any more. It made me sick.”

A month behind the winner, Parlier arrived at Les Sables-d’Olonne to a hero’s welcome.

OCEAN SAILING 17

NO SHOW 1992-93, Azores archipelago American sailor Mike Plant, a veteran of the first Vendée Globe, was lost at sea on his way to the starting line for the second competition. His boat, Coyote, was discovered near the Azores on the day the race got underway.

FIRST FATALITY 1992-93, Bay of Biscay Only four days after the second Vendée Globe started, a body was found in the waters off Cape Finisterre. It’s thought that experienced British yachtsman Nigel Burgess was knocked out and thrown overboard during a fierce storm that had forced many other competitors to return to the harbour at Les Sables-d’Olonne. That year half of the participants would fail to finish.

DIY TONGUE SURGERY 1992-93, 40° latitude in the mid-Atlantic Lashed across the face by a heavy coil of rope, Frenchman Bertrand de Broc bit down on his own tongue so hard he had no option but to sew up the wound himself, with only the race doctor’s radioed instructions to guide him. De Broc would eventually retire from the race with a collapsing keel near New Zealand.

JOURDAIN AND THE WHALE 2008-09, Azores archipelago Roland Jourdain approached the Azores islands in second place on the final stretch of the race. However, thanks to a collision with a whale three weeks earlier, he was sailing without a keel. With the threat of 50-knot winds and 10-metre swells in the days ahead, Jourdain decided to retire. “It’s a bitter pill to swallow,” he said, “but it would be even harder if, 24 hours after passing a port where I could have stopped, I capsized and had to abandon the boat.”

LOST AT SEA 1996-97, Chile Gerry Roufs was in second place when the Vendée Globe race HQ in Paris lost contact with him. Several of his competitors scoured the region around his last known position but were eventually forced to call off the search by the same severe weather that was almost certainly responsible for the Canadian’s disappearance. Five months later the wreck of his ship, Groupe LG 2, was discovered washed up on the coast of Chile. His body was never found.

The 2016-2017 Vendée Globe starts on November 6th 2016.

18

CRICKET

E H T F OUT O

S E H S A CRICKET HAMPERED BY A WARRING HOMELAND, AND A TOTAL LACK OF FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT, THE RISE OF THE AFGHAN NATIONAL CRICKET TEAM IS THE STUFF OF HOLLYWOOD MOVIES, AS TIM ALBONE, AUTHOR OF A BOOK ON THE SUBJECT, EXPLAINS.

IN OCTOBER 2001, as American bombs exploded over Taliban positions in Afghanistan, Taj Malik set off from a refugee camp in Peshawar, in Pakistan, and, despite the danger, crossed the border into the country of his birth.

He carried with him a cricket bat, a cricket ball and a change of clothes.

Having lived as a refugee for the previous 16 years, Malik had one goal in mind: to set up the Afghan cricket federation under the new government and to register the team with the International Cricket Council (ICC). To do this he had to reach the capital Kabul which meant passing by the Tora Bora mountain range where Osama bin Laden was suspected of hiding out. A cricket bat was hardly much protection against Taliban fighters who still roamed the countryside.

The success story that he initiated is one of the most incredible in sport. In 2001 when the ICC accepted the Afghan team among their ranks they were officially the worst cricket team in the world, ranked below Norway, Papua New Guinea and Japan. Just 15 years later they have appeared in a World Cup and three World Twenty20 tournaments and are (at the time of

writing) ranked 11th in the world – the best of all the nations outside of Test cricket. Along the way they’ve faced India, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Australia. Their secret? A combination of grit, determination, stubbornness and, increasingly, professionalism. If this was a Hollywood script it would have been thrown out as too far-fetched.

Back in the late 1990s, during Taliban rule, Afghanistan did have a cricket team that was, unlike so many other sports, tolerated by the regime. The fundamentalists approved of the frequent breaks in play that could accommodate prayer times, while the lack of cheering from supporters appealed to their killjoy nature. However, cricket in Afghanistan only started to flourish after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, and particularly after 2008 when they were accepted into the World Cricket League. They entered at the lowest level – Division Five – aiming to qualify for the World Cup. Their first tournament took place on the tiny European island of Jersey where they faced, among others, cricketing minnows such as Singapore, Botswana, Japan and the Bahamas.

Amazingly they won that tournament, narrowly beating Jersey in the final by two wickets. Yet they hadn’t shown the form of potential World Cup candidates. Their bowling was tight and their fast bowlers the quickest in the tournament, but with the bat they were suicidal and, in the field, sloppy. They slogged, when they should have been cautious, and dropped easy catches. It was entertaining to watch but they needed to improve, and quickly.

Despite all his hard work and passion, Malik was replaced by a former Test player from Pakistan, Kabir Khan, who brought experience and maturity to the side. While still prone to exuberance with the bat, the Afghans fortunately cut back on the pitch invasions when they won, the weeping when they lost, and the changing-

room tantrums when they felt a decision went against them. They were growing up.

Under Khan they kept winning and climbing the rankings which is all the more remarkable when you consider how their homeland was being engulfed in a bloody insurgency, and that their training facilities consisted of a few dusty nets and one bowling machine.

Admirably, in 2010, 2012 and 2014 they qualified for the ICC World Twenty20. Finally, in 2015, they made it to the World Cup. Although here they won just one match (against Scotland), they certainly didn’t humiliate themselves. They had finally achieved their dream.

Today the Afghan team still contains some players from that first tournament in Jersey. There’s Hamid Hassan, the fast bowler and leading one-day international wicket-taker who paints Afghan flags on his face, wears a Rambo-style headband and cartwheels when he takes a wicket. There’s Samiullah Shinwari, a stylish player who once dreamed of being a model, and is now the team’s leading one-day international run-maker. And there’s skipper Mohammed Nabi, a brilliant all-rounder and his country’s second highest run-scorer and wickettaker. In eight short years these players have gone from playing Japan and Botswana to the mighty India and Australia. They are now among the best non-Test-playing nations in the world. If they continue to grow and further challenge the established cricket hierarchy, then one day they might realise their ultimate dream of playing Test cricket.

[Tim Albone is author and director of Out of the Ashes, a book and documentary on the Afghan cricket team.]

Populous is working on new grandstands and the masterplan for Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, the historic home of cricket.

CRICKET 19

THE AFGHANS CUT BACK ON THE PITCH INVASIONS WHEN THEY WON, THE WEEPING WHEN THEY LOST. THEY WERE GROWING UP.

AFGHAN SUCCESS

The Cricket World Cup is not the only global stage on which Afghan athletes have performed. At both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, this war-torn nation had a bronze medalist in taekwondo to cheer on thanks to Rohullah Nikpai.

His country’s first Olympic medallist in any sport, he became a national hero after the 2008 Olympics and was awarded a house, car and other gifts by his government.

“I hope this will send a message of peace to my country after 30 years of war,” he said.

Afghanistan has seen moderate success over the years in the Asian Games, too, with silver and bronze medals in cricket, wrestling and taekwondo.

The country’s national sport, played in various forms across Central Asia, is buzkashi, an equestrian sport that involves dragging the carcass of a goat or calf into a goal.

Riders carry whips to fend off riders and horses from the opposing team.

20

ULTRA MARATHONS

ULTRA MARATHONS THEY BILL IT AS THE “TOUGHEST FOOT RACE ON EARTH”. THE MARATHON DES SABLES IS A 156-MILE ODYSSEY ACROSS THE SAHARA DESERT, WITH RUNNERS FORCED TO CARRY ALL THEIR OWN FOOD AND EQUIPMENT. DOMINIC BLISS FINDS OUT HOW AND WHY THEY TAKE PART.

“THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, the heat is oppressive. From the first day, the thermometer reads 54°C (130°F) when the sun is at its peak, and 36°C (97°F) in the shade of the Berber tents. The body suffers. The medical staff intervene approximately 300 times to treat those overwhelmed by the heat. 49 runners receive IV infusions, as compared to the 26 of the previous year. A record.”

In his biography, Marathon Man of the Sands, Lahcen Ahansal describes the brutal conditions of the Marathon des Sables, a 156-mile ultra marathon across the Moroccan Sahara, during which competitors run and speed-hike for six day stages over sand dunes, mountains, wadis and salt flats. They battle sandstorms, sunburn,

dehydration, creepy-crawlies, blisters and the aforementioned heat before spending each night in a tent in the middle of the desert. The shortest stage is around ten miles; the longest around 50 miles, much of it through the night. Ahansal has won the MdS a record ten times, and hails from the region it’s staged in. If he says it’s “oppressive” then it truly must be.

Yet, ask most of the 1,300 or so competitors who turn up every year, and it’s not the heat they consider the toughest aspect. It’s what the desert sand does to your feet. Steve Partridge, a 62-yearold Englishman, has completed the MdS seven times. In his early days, his lack of experience as a desert runner put him through physical torture.

“The first time I did the race I had 22 blisters on

operation

ULTRA MARATHONS 21

“THE WIND KICKED IN WITH A TERRIFYING FURY. I WAS SWALLOWED BY A YELLOW WALL OF SAND. I WAS BLINDED, I COULDN’T BREATHE. IT WAS LIKE A STORM OF NEEDLES.” 1994 COMPETITOR MAURO PROSPERI.

my feet – open sores, every one of them,” he remembers. “It took me hours to get my shoes on every morning. Sand got into my shoes every time I placed my feet on the ground and caused excruciating pain. You end up getting blisters on your blisters.”

To fare well in the MdS, which has been staged annually since 1986, it’s crucial you have the correct supplies and equipment. Drinking water, distress beacons and transponders are supplied by the organisers but each competitor must carry a minimum of 14,000 calories of food. A signalling mirror, an aluminium survival sheet, a headlamp and an anti-venom pump are also obligatory. After his initial foot torture, Partridge adopted a clever strategy in

subsequent races: he protected his shoes and lower legs with gaiters made of parachute silk.

Ahansal also became obsessed with his equipment, spending months designing a rucksack that wouldn’t rub the skin off his shoulders.

Race organiser, Frenchman Patrick Bauer, was inspired to set up his event after a 200-mile solo jaunt he made across the Sahara in 1984. He believes what makes the MdS so tough is the need to perfectly manage one’s physical needs.

“A self-sufficiency in food means runners must manage and carry all their food during the entire competition, in a rucksack that weighs up to 15kgs,” he explains. “You have to manage your calorie intake, your rest time, your intensity of >>

desert storm

22

ULTRA MARATHONS

running, your hydration, your salt intake…Then add to that the heat of the Sahara, and the recurrent sandstorms.”

Inevitably, given the brutal conditions, there have been a fair few mishaps over the years.

Regular culprits, Bauer explains, are dehydration, tendinitis, cramps and of course the infamous blisters. “Sometimes we have had to deal with heart attacks, and emergency air evacuations,” he adds.

In the race’s 30-year history, two competitors have died. Several have come very close to death. Perhaps the most alarming story is that of the unfortunate Italian competitor, 39-year-old Mauro Prosperi, who lost his way during a sandstorm in the 1994 race. “The wind kicked in with a terrifying fury,” he later told the BBC. “I was swallowed by a yellow wall of sand. I was blinded, I couldn’t breathe. The sand whipped my face. It was like a storm of needles.”

The storm lasted eight hours, obliterating all the race markers and transforming the

ULTRA MARATHONS 23

landscape beyond recognition. Prosperi rather unwisely pressed on, realising after a few hours that he was utterly lost. Fortunately he stumbled upon a deserted Bedouin shrine that offered shelter. To stay alive he drank his own urine and caught bats roosting in the shrine, eating them raw. Depression soon set in, however, when it became apparent he wasn’t going to be rescued, and he later attempted suicide by slashing his wrists.

But the desert conditions had thickened Prosperi’s blood so much that he survived the attempt. Mentally revived, he decided to walk on further in search of rescue, catching snakes and lizards for food. Finally, after nine days on his own, he found a tiny inhabited oasis.

Unknowingly he had crossed from Morocco into Algeria, 180 miles off course. 16kgs (35lbs) of his body weight had been burned off in the process, and he took two years to fully recover.

It’s thanks to horror stories like this, plus some brilliant marketing and the odd celebrity

runner (FC Barcelona manager Luis Enrique has taken part, as have TV star Jack Osbourne and explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes), that the MdS has achieved such notoriety. From its humble beginnings in the 1980s when just 23 eccentrics took part, it has grown into one of the biggest ultra marathons on the planet. The 2016 edition will see 1,300 runners competing for a prize money fund of US$34,000.

But for most of those taking part, it’s not prize money that’s the incentive. It’s the almost sado-masochistic challenge of taking on the desert. This may explain why so many runners come back for more torture, year after year.

“Every runner suffers in their own way,” Ahansal explains in his biography. “And it is precisely amidst the suffering that doubt gives way to a primal logic, something mechanical and almost inhuman which numbs your mind and rids you of every thought except your target. The idea becomes all-consuming. You draw strength from it in order to continue.”

THE MARATHON DES SABLES IS NOT THE ONLY GRUESOMELY TOUGH ULTRA MARATHON. TRY THESE FOR EXTRA PAIN.

TO STAY ALIVE HE DRANK HIS OWN URINE AND CAUGHT BATS, EATING THEM RAW. DEPRESSION SOON SET IN, HOWEVER. HE LATER ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.

1

2

THE 6633 ARCTIC ULTRA

ULTRA TRAIL DU MONT BLANC

It’s cold, it’s windy, it’s only for the seriously sado-masochistic. The runners in the 6633 Arctic Ultra cover 350 miles across the Great White North from the Yukon to the edge of the Arctic Ocean, pulling all their supplies on a sled.

More than two thousand intrepid athletes take on this Alpine challenge every year, running 166kms (103 miles) in a huge loop around Europe’s tallest mountain, climbing a total of 10,000 metres (32,800 ft).

3

4

5

SELF-TRANSCENDENCE 3100 MILE RACE

BADWATER 135

ANTARCTIC ICE MARATHON

Officially the longest running race on the planet, the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race is staged every summer and has runners completing a total of 5,649 laps around the same city block in New York City. Each lap is 883 metres long.

Boredom is as much of a challenge as the physical fatigue.

Your mission? To run 135 miles across California’s Death Valley and most of the way up Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States… in mid-summer. Runners’ shoes have been known to melt in the 50°C-plus temperatures.

The good news is that this 26-mile race is held during the Antarctic summer. The bad news is you still face bitter winds and potential frostbite. If a standard marathon distance isn’t enough, there’s always a 100-km (62-mile) race on offer, too.

HELL ON HIGH WATER ROWING ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT... NON-STOP ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN, BATTLING STORMS, SALT RASH, SOLITUDE, HALLUCINATIONS, SHARKS AND BARNACLES. THE ATLANTIC CHALLENGE IS AN ODYSSEY OF OCEAN ENDURANCE, AS NICK HARPER DISCOVERS

Is this the toughest rowing race on the planet? Just ask the handful (no one else is suitably insane) of athletes who have tackled the 3,000-mile Atlantic Challenge, from the Canary Islands, off Africa’s northwest coast to Antigua in the Caribbean. Staged every two years, this mammoth journey takes between 40 and 90 days non-stop. Competitors can compete solo, in pairs or in fours. Most choose pairs.

THE BOATS

HALLUCINATIONS

Most boats are designed for two rowers and conform to set specifications. Built of wood, fibre glass, carbon fibre and Kevlar, they measure 7.5m by 1.8m – too small for competitors to walk freely around.

They’re designed to self-right themselves if – or more likely when – they capsize. A small, watertight cabin offers the only covered protection from storms and sun but there is no onboard toilet. Most competitors favour the ‘bucket and chuck it’ approach.

Competitors normally row in shifts – two hours on, two hours off – around the clock. They can expect no more than an hour and a half’s sleep at a time, at best. “They’ll suffer hallucinations from the sleep deprivation,” warns event organiser Carsten Heron Olsen.

Singing in the face of insanity can help.

“When we were rowing through the storms, and the waves were just like dark walls looming over us, I would take to singing hymns at the top of my lungs,” recalled Jamie Sparks. “One of my defining memories is roaring Jerusalem into the howling wind and gales like a madman.”

ROWING 25

NaCl SALT SORES

BARNACLES AND SHARKS

Battered by sea water, competitors’ skin is quickly eroded. Salt sores on the hands and buttocks are particularly common. In 2006 British rowers James Cracknell and Ben Fogle made headlines for rowing naked – less an exhibitionist streak than an attempt to avoid material touching their raw, blistered skin. “We were told it would be more comfortable,” blogged Fogle at the time, “but it was agony. My bottom is so sore that it hurt to sit on the seat so I am rowing once again in cycling shorts and trainers.” The pain became “almost unbearable”, claimed 2014 finisher Jamie Sparks who crossed in 54 days.

While sharks patrol certain sections of the Atlantic, barnacles are a far more worrying issue. “We were in 15-metre [50ft] waves when we realised we had barnacles on the hull of the boat and that they were slowing us right down,” says Dan Howie. “Getting under the boat in those conditions is extremely difficult and dangerous. One of you gets in, attached to a rope, and starts scrubbing while the other guy goes on shark watch.” Barnacles removed, Howie’s boat gained a knot of speed.

“I wish we’d known about copper coating the boat before we began,” he says. “We now know that keeps the barnacles away.”

RAGING WAVES

PREPARATION

The Atlantic is calmest in December and January but the teams can still expect unpredictable conditions and volatile storms. In 2013 Dan Howie and Will North were forced to shelter inside their cabin for 72 hours while being buffeted by 10-metre (35ft) waves. In 2011, having hit his head during a storm that threw him from his boat, Swedish competitor Viktor Mattsson regained consciousness in the water, and discovered his safety cord severed and his boat floating away. “At one point I thought I’d never make it,” he reflected, having waited 12 hours to be rescued.

These are not isolated incidents.

Although unmercifully punishing on the body, the race is considered to be far harder on mind than muscle. “We trained 80 per cent physical and 20 per cent mental,” says Dan Howie, a finisher in 2013. “We should have done the exact opposite because, as tough as it is on your body, the battle is mostly in your head.” Competitors are warned to prepare for any and every eventuality.

“So much can go wrong at sea, it would be pointless to even try writing down a list,” said fellow finisher Bastien Leclair.

“We trained and prepared for almost every crisis situation, except maybe an alien attack.”

THE OPEN OCEAN

SPEED

THE RULES

EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES

Once away from the hype and hysteria of San Sebastian harbour, on the Canary Island of La Gomera, the teams quickly find themselves eerily alone.

“That complete and utter isolation is incredibly difficult to cope with,” says Dan Howie. “The morning of Christmas Day was particularly tough as it emphasised how far away from home we were but how far we still had to go.”

Ironically, despite being alone, competitors live almost on top of each other. “You cannot escape from your rowing partner,” says Howie. “We argued a lot and often went days without even talking to each other.”

As you’d expect, the boats are getting quicker. In 1966, in the crossing that later inspired the Atlantic Challenge, British rowers Chay Blyth and John Ridgway completed the journey in 92 days. In the first organised race, founded by Blyth in 1997, the first finishers reached Barbados in 41 days.

But boat speed is hugely dependent on the weather conditions. In 2010 solo competitor Charlie Pitcher finished first of any class, but for 10 of his 52 days at sea, his boat was blown backwards. In 2013, taking advantage of the trade winds and generally better conditions, he set a new fastest-finisher record of just 35 days.

All competitors must hold various qualifications in ocean theory, first aid and sea survival. Each team needs to have rowed their boat for a minimum of 24 hours, 12 of those during darkness. The boat must be propelled only by the rowing effort of the crew and the natural action of the wind, waves and currents acting on it.

Outside assistance – including re-supplies of food, drink or equipment – results in immediate disqualification.

The boats are equipped with solar panels to power GPS tracking equipment, satellite telephones and a laptop that allows communication with the outside world. Each carries a device to desalinate sea water, plus 90 days’ rations. For a team of two, this means around 850 packets of high-calorie, freeze-dried food and 368 chocolate bars. In calorie terms each rower will eat the equivalent of 16 hamburgers each day and burn off 8,000 calories daily.

If they reach the other side of the Atlantic, they’ll have lost 20 per cent of their body weight.

26

GOLF

WATCH THE BIRDIE GOLF HERE’S ONE WAY TO ADD YARDS TO YOUR DRIVE: PLAY THE WORLD’S LONGEST GOLF COURSE – AN 850-MILE ODYSSEY ACROSS THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK. JUST BEWARE OF THE BALL-THIEVING CROW.

GOLF 27

ENDURANCE. It’s not a quality you normally require in a sport such as golf. Not unless you’re taking on the mighty Nullarbor Links, that is – an 18-hole par-71 course spread out 850 miles (1,400 kms) across southern Australia. It claims to be the longest golf course in the world.

Stretching across the Nullarbor Plain, along the route of the deadstraight Eyre Highway from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to Ceduna in South Australia, it’s a golfing odyssey that will really test your stamina.

Although the fairways tend to be fairly dry and dusty – this is the Australian outback, after all – most holes are standard in length (the longest 538 metres; the shortest 125 metres), bookended by tees and greens largely made of synthetic grass.

What isn’t standard, however, are the unorthodox features on many of the holes. The fourth, Wombat Hole, is so called since the local town claims the largest population of southern hairy-nosed wombats in all of Australia. It’s peppered with burrows dug by the marsupials. At the 10th a sign alerts you to the fact that the town has a population of just eight human beings to 1.2 million kangaroos. The 12th, Skylab, is named after the American space research laboratory that crash-landed here in 1979. (Jimmy Carter personally telephoned the local hotel to apologise for the mess.) Another is plagued by a pesky crow who insists on stealing players’ balls. “Try spraying smelly stuff on the balls,” suggest club officials. One hole, Nullarbor Nymph, is named after an old story about a naked woman with long blonde hair who used to run around with the kangaroos. (This later proved to be a hoax designed to attract tourists.)

Like all the best sporting ideas, the original concept for Nullarbor Links came about over a few drinks. Five bottles of shiraz, to be precise, according to course manager Alf Caputo. It was the brainchild of one Bob Bongiorno, manager of one of the highway’s roadhouses. “His idea was that a golf course would slow motorists down, thus allowing them to

spend more time and money on the Nullarbor,” Caputo adds.

“Golf tourism is a lucrative market. The course provides a quintessential Australian golfing experience unmatched anywhere in the world.”

Funded partly by the Australian government, and partly by private investors, the course cost around Aus$500,000 (US$387,000) to construct, and was completed in October 2009. The first person to play all 18 holes was a local professional called Len Thomas. Since then it’s estimated that over 22,000 golfers have completed the course, paying AUS$70 (US$55) each for the privilege.

“You take aim down a fairway that looks more like a Martian landing strip: firm-packed red dirt, warped by heat waves,” was how Golf magazine described the course. “The temperature pushing triple digits and the bush flies swarming like paparazzi. The good news is, the flies don’t bite. The bad news is, the death adders do. They’re out there in the scrub brush, coiled, unblinking. A drop of their venom is enough to kill a cow.”

New South Wales golfer Keith Russell took seven days to finish his round. “The rough holes are not for the faint hearted,” he said afterwards.

“But the stop-overs help reduce accidents and driver fatigue on the Nullarbor drive.”

“We laughed a lot and we swore a lot,” said another New South Wales golfer Christine Kostrzewa.

“The worst golf course we have ever played, but the most rewarding,” was Queensland visitor Graeme Gordon’s assessment. “Sack the groundsman.”

While Nullarbor’s quirkiness is what golfers most love about the course, many have complained about the kleptomaniac crow. After losing multiple balls, some have suggested he ought to be taught a lesson in golfing etiquette. Others have simply called for him to be shot.

ANOTHER HOLE IS PLAGUED BY A PESKY CROW WHO INSISTS ON STEALING PLAYERS’ BALLS. “TRY SPRAYING SMELLY STUFF ON THE BALLS,” SUGGEST CLUB OFFICIALS.

THE COURSE HOLE

NAME

1

OYSTER BEDS

PAR DISTANCE 5

485M

2 DENIAL BAY

4

370M

3 WINDMILLS

4

260M

4 WOMBAT HOLE

5

520M

5 DINGO’S DEN

5

538M

6 BORDER KANGAROO 3

160M

7 NULLARBOR NYMPH 4

315M

8 WATERING HOLE

4

330M

9 BRUMBY’S RUN

3

125M

10 EAGLES NEST

4

347M

11 90 MILE STRAIGHT

4

310M

12 SKYLAB

3

175M

13 SHEEP’S BACK

3

141M

14 GOLDEN HORSE

4

436M

15 NGADJU

4

354M

16 SILVER LAKE

4

392M

17 GOLDEN MILE

4

339M

18 CY O’CONNOR

4

365M

TOTAL: 850 MILES

18 18CY CYO’Connor Connor

11 Genial Oyster Beds Bay

28 POP STAR

POP STAR FEELING THE NATURAL AND PHYSICAL POWER OF THE WAVES, ALL WITHOUT HARMING THE ENVIRONMENT – THAT’S WHAT GIVES POPULOUS’S ANDREW JAMES HIS PASSION FOR SURFING.

“I DON’T GO SURFING if I have to wear a wetsuit.” Fortunately, Populous senior principal Andrew James works in the Indonesian capital Jakarta which places him close to some of the best warm-water surfing spots in the world.

“From the top of North Sumatra, down the west coast of Sumatra, down to Panaitan, and across the south coast of Java,” he says, listing some of the areas he and his friends visit on their surfing trips. “Then there’s Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa and Sumba, all the way to West Timor.”

Andrew has worked on some of Populous’s most exciting Asian projects such as the main stadium for the 2014 Asian Games, the Taipei Dome baseball stadium, the Philippine Arena, and Nanjing Sports Park. When his busy schedule allows, he loves to head off on group

surfing trips. Perhaps twice a year, if he’s lucky.

Now 54 years old, he has rediscovered his passion for the sport he first learned as a child.

When he took up surfing, back in the 1970s, he remembers how it was very much part of an alternative culture. “It’s pretty mainstream now, but there are still many things I love about this sport. It’s great exercise, and it’s an escape.

When you go down to a beach on a Sunday morning, and you’re out on the water, it’s a semireligious experience; very spiritual, because you’re communing with nature. You’ve got to sit and be patient and wait for the waves. You go surfing when nature determines the conditions are right. For many people, their early Sunday morning jaunt out into the ocean, their immersion and communication with nature, is their church time.”

There’s virtually no environmental impact with surfing either. “You’re not using any of the world’s resources,” Andrew explains. “The waves come through. They crash, they re-form and they continue. It’s like using wind power instead of petrol. You’re using something that nature provides.”

Andrew also appreciates the “tactility with the water”, hence his refusal to surf anywhere where a wetsuit is required. “As you feel the differences in the water temperature on

POP STAR 29

“WHEN YOU GO DOWN TO A BEACH ON A SUNDAY MORNING, AND YOU’RE OUT ON THE WATER, IT’S A SEMIRELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE; VERY SPIRITUAL, BECAUSE YOU’RE COMMUNING WITH NATURE.”

your skin, your senses are refreshed the whole time,” he explains. “It’s great, the way the water moves round your body.”

This connection with nature is hugely important to Andrew. Like many surfers, one of his ambitions is to ride “bigger and bigger barrel” waves. Indonesia offers great opportunities for this. He describes the thrill of riding for five, 10, even 15 seconds inside the barrel of a large wave.

“For me it’s a huge adrenalin rush. Some people say time stands still when you’re surfing a barrel. I think it goes too fast. You focus on getting out of the barrel; on how shallow the water is below you. You’re watching out for the water all around you, keeping your head tucked in, and your position on the board. You’re acting instinctually. It’s only when you come out that you reflect upon it.”

These days Andrew spends a long time reflecting on his surfing. Until recently he lived in Bali where he was able to surf at least once a week. Since his recent move to Jakarta, that wave time has been reduced. But he still has many ambitions left in the sport, many of them dictated by the climactic conditions. From April to October, the Indian Ocean coast of Indonesia provides the best waves. From January to March it’s the country’s Pacific Ocean coasts.

Occasionally his group trips head for the Maldives or Sri Lanka but Andrew finds the surf inferior and the beaches crowded. One new surf spot he would love to visit is Colombia, on South America’s Pacific coast.

City beaches have their attractions, too.

Occasionally, when he’s back at Populous’s Brisbane office, Andrew has the chance to surf on the Gold Coast. Here it’s a very different feeling to that of his adopted home of Indonesia.

“You’re out on the ocean, looking back at the city,” he explains. “That proximity to people working in the city gives you a sense of objectivity, especially at lunchtime when everyone’s busy in their offices.”

More recently, surfing has provided a bond between Andrew and his son Jake. He first taught Jake to surf when he was eight years old.

Fourteen years later and the sport brings father and son together. “That’s what we do. When I’m back in Australia where Jake lives, we go for a surf together. And he surfs really, really well now.” The sporting passion has been passed from one generation to the next.

30

TEAM FRANCHISES

GROW

HOW TO

A FAN BASE

TEAM FRANCHISES ALL BIG CITIES WANT TO BE HOME TO MAJOR SPORTING TEAMS. BUT SURELY IT TAKES GENERATIONS FOR NEW TEAMS TO CULTIVATE LOYAL FAN BASES? NOT ALWAYS, AS JOE BOYLE DISCOVERS.

IF IT’S TRUE that nature abhors a vacuum, how do you explain the NFL-shaped hole in Los Angeles? The second largest metropolis in the USA has been without a team in the country’s most prestigious sports league since 1995. Elsewhere, the equally glamorous Las Vegas is the largest American city without a major team in any sport.

That’s set to change, however, as the new Las Vegas Arena takes shape, with the aim of attracting an NHL ice hockey franchise for 2017. If it happens, as expected, it will be a major coup for the city, and an operation that many other team-less cities all over the world will study closely.

How do metropolises lure in big sports franchises? And once the team moves in, how does it foster a loyal fan base? There are valuable lessons in recent sporting history.

BUY NEARLY-NEW Rugby union: Wasps RFC British sport does not have a franchise culture, so when London Wasps dropped the ‘London’ in 2014 and moved 100 miles north to Coventry, they urged their fans to migrate with them. People who know both cities might wonder why you’d swap one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities for, well, Coventry. The reason was a virtually brand new but empty stadium, deserted by stone-broke soccer team Coventry City FC. Wasps moved in and the cynics were flabbergasted as attendance figures rocketed.

THE ONLY SHOW IN TOWN

YOU CANNOT BE TOO SERIOUS

American football: Green Bay Packers

Tennis: Singapore Slammers

Green Bay hasn’t had a new professional franchise since 1921.

And that’s the point. This unassuming Wisconsin town shouldn’t be large enough to host an iconic sports team.

Yet, its 100,000 inhabitants follow, indeed own (the team are not-for-profit and community-owned), one of the most successful teams in NFL history. Why? Perhaps because there is no other professional sports team within 100 miles or so.

It’s a simple lesson in supply and demand.

It takes hard work and money to convince the world you deserve a global sports franchise. Singapore boasts lots of both. From the Serapong golf course which, in a feat of imagination and terra-forming, literally rose from the sea, to the Singapore Sports Hub, a new US$1billion sports and entertainment complex, the Singaporeans have worked hard on their sporting vision. Their latest reward came in 2014 when the fledgling International Premier Tennis League gave them one of four inaugural franchises, the Singapore Slammers.

TEAM FRANCHISES 31

GET THE KIDS INVOLVED Soccer

NAMING RITES American football: Baltimore Ravens Getting the name right is one of the more crucial (and surely enjoyable) decisions in establishing a new team. Animals predominate, though the simple step of choosing an appropriately fierce creature can go wrong, as Japanese professional baseball team, the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, demonstrate. A happier example came with the controversial 1996 move of the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore, when sceptical fans were given a vote on the renaming. They drew on a poem, The Raven, by former resident Edgar Allan Poe. It ticked all the right boxes: fan involvement, gothic menace and an eye-catching motif for the side of a helmet.

Heard of the soccer moms? Unlike in Europe where soccer fan bases tend to be dominated by men (and often their sons), American league MLS has succeeded in attracting women and girls, too. One key demographic is the so-called soccer mom – typically an American middle-class mother who spends much of her free time ferrying her kids to and from soccer practice. New MLS team Orlando City FC knows how converting soccer moms and their kids into fans can result in increased ticket and merchandise sales. The club’s establishment of successful youth coaching programmes for players aged four to 18 no doubt reinforces this conversion. Based in southern Florida, and run by a Brazilian, the club also knows the importance of appealing to the local Hispanic population, hence the inclusion of Brazilian legend and former Real Madrid and AC Milan player Kaka as their marquee player.

ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS Soccer: Real Salt Lake You’re a fledgling soccer franchise, in the Utah mountains, with no history in the sport and no name. What do you do? You adopt the most famous epithet in world soccer, of course. Thus Real Salt Lake was born. Many laughed, and the real ‘Real’ in Madrid didn’t mind, though mooted closer links never materialised. Still, the brief, early notoriety was clever marketing and established a maverick reputation that has followed the club ever since.

THE BALTIMORE RAVENS DREW ON A POEM, THE RAVEN, BY FORMER RESIDENT EDGAR ALLAN POE. IT TICKED ALL THE RIGHT BOXES: FAN INVOLVEMENT, GOTHIC MENACE AND A MOTIF FOR THE HELMETS.

GET GOD ON YOUR SIDE CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT Basketball: LA Lakers It’s not just who’s on the team but also who’s in the stands that matters. When the Lakers moved from Minneapolis to (lakefree) LA in 1960, they had superstars on the court in the shape of Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. They also had early super-fans off it, in particular Doris Day. Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Dean Martin followed in her wake, part of an ongoing off-court roster of celebrity fans that means the Lakers are never out of the news. This is how relocations should work.

Cricket: Mumbai Indians The success of cricket’s Indian Premier League since its formation in 2008 was the result of combining the country’s deepest pockets with its biggest stars. Mumbai Indians were guaranteed success not simply because they were backed

by India’s biggest business conglomerate, Reliance Industries, but because their designated icon player was Sachin Tendulkar, a virtual, if ageing, deity in India. His presence even allowed the drably-named Indians a lean couple of early years before they got into top gear and established themselves as the IPL’s strongest side.

ENDURE THIS

Endurance sport makes hefty demands on the human body, as evidenced by the extreme statistics listed here. Read them and feel sorry for the poor athletes who take part.

100,000 calories An estimate of how many calories each Tour de France cyclist burns during the 23-day race. This is the equivalent of 372 pints of cola.

3,100 miles The length of the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, officially the world’s longest footrace, and staged every year for 5,649 laps of the same New York City block.

32 hours The time it took record-holder Guillaume Peretti to run the 110-mile mountain backbone of the Mediterranean island of Corsica. The tourist board advises tourists to allow 15 days.

57°C The highest temperature ever recorded in California’s Death Valley, stage of the Badwater 135 ultra marathon.

7 The number of people who have completed Ocean’s Seven – a swimming challenge that involves crossing the English Channel, the Irish Channel, the Catalina Channel, the Cook Strait, the Kaiwi Channel, the Tsugaru Strait and the Strait of Gibraltar.

39 days and 59 minutes The current record for rowing across the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean.

87-mile run, 21-mile swim, 181-mile bike ride

61,000 metres The total elevation over the course of the USA’s 2,745-mile Tour Divide mountain bike challenge.

The distances in the Enduroman Arch to Arc triathlon, from London to Paris.

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