Challenge Wanaka is offering a marathon runner a chance to race in a team with two top New Zealand triathletes next month.
Adventure racing world champion Richard Ussher (34), of Nelson, and Youth Olympic gold medallist Aaron Barclay (17), of Riversdale, are being "given away" by the organisers of the long-distance triathlon to a runner who can show he or she deserves to be their team-mate.
The athletes found out this week their original team-mate, Australian Belinda Granger, who won the women's Challenge Wanaka in 2007, will not be coming to New Zealand because her husband and fellow triathlete, Justin Granger, has broken his collarbone in a cycling accident.
Ussher and Barclay still want to race and have not set any criteria other than their team-mate be fit to run a marathon on January 15.
Ussher is the defending men's champion, the course record holder (8hr 34min 31sec) and the bike course record holder (4hr 42min 26sec).
He won the Abu Dhabi Adventure Race for the fourth time in a row earlier this month and is preparing for the Coast to Coast in early February, so will not be defending his individual title.
Barclay first competed as a swimmer in the Challenge Wanaka aged 15, finishing the 3.8km course in 51min.
Last year he swam the course in 47min 15sec.
With times like that, Ussher's team could be leading the field during the transition to the marathon, but director Victoria Murray-Orr insisted yesterday there was "no pressure" on the runner.
"It is not every day you get to run down the finish chute of an international event with a Youth Olympic gold medallist and a world champion," she said.
"There are no prerequisites. You just need to be fit enough to run a marathon on January 15."
The winner will be selected based on how much support they receive in "likes" on Facebook, and on the opinions of their prospective team-mates, who are on the judging panel.
Challenge Wanaka is a 3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42.2km run.
More than 1200 athletes from 27 countries are taking part in the triathlon festival from January 9-15.
