Accounting administrator Sarah Veasey, 30, took up the sport in 2022 for fitness, after signing up at a local gym.
She has rapidly progressed through the ranks to earn selection for the New Zealand team heading to the World Obstacles in Costa Rica in August, and will compete in her age group in 100m, 3km and 15km obstacle races.
Her pathway began at the Alpha Challenge in Wānaka in 2022, followed by The Spartan, Australia.
"I guess living in such a beautiful place, it makes you want to go out there and do something. And there are lots of adventurous people keen to try new things," she said of Wānaka’s reputation for producing highly competitive outdoor pursuiters.
"It is quite a new sport but it is becoming quite popular. It was introduced at the Fit Collective gym, as they were running the Alpha Challenge in Wānaka. So I tried it through them. They also took a group of us to Spartan Australia. I didn’t try to compete in that one because it was one of my first races. But that’s what got me hooked on to it," she said.
After successful competition at Wānaka’s Alpha Challenge 2023 and the Wairua Warriors event this year, the mother of two earned enough points to be selected for New Zealand.
Obstacle course racing was very easy to get addicted to, she said, because everyone was friendly and competitors came from all walks of life.
The Alpha Challenge usually attracted more than 100 entrants, their families and supporters and included races for children and adaptive athletes, she said.
The world championships would have many different types of obstacles, such as climbing walls, ropes (her best discipline), mud sections, monkey bars and multi-rigs (these are where several obstacles are put together at different elevations, as seen in Ninja competitions.)
"It is quite hard. Most of the races, if you miss the obstacle you have to do 30 burpees," she said.
Some information about obstacles would be released a few weeks before the world championships so athletes could prepare, but a few would be kept secret until the day, Veasey said.
"Some of the elite athletes are so good. They barely touch the obstacles as they just fly through them. It is going to be so neat to see them."
Veasey trains at the gym four to five times a week and also enjoys trail running.
She has a $10,000 fundraising goal. So far she’s raised about $1500 at a quiz night and is planning two sausage sizzles at Mitre 10 and a Cinema Paradiso movie night, on dates to be announced.
