CHENNAI:Who ever knew that walking on sand under the shimmering sun, squinting our eyes would be a thing of joy? Well, watching several young enthusiasts run, crawl and jump on the sands of Covelong Point, Kovalam was a sight much happily tiring to watch. There were more than 600 entries from across India, for the adventure festival organised by Wild Warriors. The adventure races began at the crack of dawn with the Triathlon, Duathlon and a 5k run. The highlight of the festival was the phenomenal obstacle course run which had more than 200 entries.
This was Asia’s first-ever beach-side obstacle course race, spread across 1 km with a dozen challenging and fun obstacles. Pull-ee-me up, Tarzan swing, Camel’s hump, Penguin run and the Wall climb were few of the obstacles that the participants had to cross in order to complete the race. The participants were divided into various sub- categories like non-competitors, competitors, women and men. They were accordingly provided with wrist bands of two colours — orange and green. which had in-built chips to digitally calculate each participant’s time to complete the race. A penalty for the non-completion of each task was 10 burpees, which added to the spectators’ laughter. “The day was complete fun. The obstacles were super challenging and I loved the course ebven more because of the high-energy crowd,” says Sanjana George, who was the winner of the race in the Women’s category.
The beach, the adrenaline, the sunset and the high energy music paved way to a thrilling oasis of adventure along the Covelong point. The winners were awarded cash and gift prizes from popular brands like Ciclo Café, Bike shop, F45 Nungambakkam, vouchers from Toni and Guy and many more.“ We saw participants aged from 18 - 56. I am amazed at the hidden talent Chennai has,” shares Somdev Devvarman, the Co-founder of Wild Warriors.This time, the beach didn’t just echo the sound of waves but also the chant,“ Who are we?..We are wild.” The young team of Wild Warriors will organise their next event at the off-road mountain trail of Pokhara, Nepal on March 31st.