Three Southlanders and a Cantabrian, members of the Fiordland Endurance and Adventure Racing (FEAR) Society Youth team, have returned exhausted but triumphant after coming 9th out of 109 teams from 32 countries competing in the 2023 Adventure Racing World Championships. 

The gruelling 840km championship race was held over nine days (19-28 October) in South Africa, and combined mountain biking with trail running, tracking, navigation and river kayaking.

Forty two degree temperatures, battering storms and drenching rain forced competitors to endure heat stroke, diarrhoea, nausea, blisters and extreme sleep deprivation.

Of the 109 teams that started the race, only 45 completed it.

Fynn Mitchell plotting points after Stage 1. Photo: Keegan Magness - @chester_captures

FEAR Youth team members Dean Stewart (20) of Wyndham, Fynn Mitchell (18) of Lumsden, Josh Pearson (20) of Te Anau, and Molly Spark (20) of Rangiora, were the youngest team ever to compete in the champships. 

Their time of 150 hours, 32 minutes (6.5 days), was just 32 hours behind race winners Swedish Armed Forces Adventure team, who completed the race in 118 hours (5 days).

Despite their young age, most of FEAR Youth members are not new to international competition at their chosen field. 

Fynn Mitchell, a year 13 Southland Boys’ High School student, ran the Dusky Track at 14, and has completed Godzone twice - first in 2022 as a 16 year old (and the youngest competitor in the race history), then again in February 2023 when his team finished seventh.

In August Fynn was invited to join the United States team Bend Racing, to compete in the 2023 Nordic Islands Adventure Race in the Faroe Islands. His team finished third-equal.

FEAR Touth team on Stage 6. Photo: Keegan Magness - @chester_captures

Dean Stewart’s endurance racing “career” started in January 2021 with participation in his first multi-day adventure race - the Wilderness Traverse of Fiordland organised by the FEAR Society. 

Two years later the young Southland shepherd entered the Revenant Ultra Adventure Run, a 200km race, on Welcome Rock Station near Garston in Southland.

A Japanese film crew filming the race was so impressed with Dean’s performance, that they invited him to Japan to participate in the Tamba 100, a two-day, 100-mile (160km) race, held in June 2023.

On his return to New Zealand Dean took on a shepherd’s job at Mt Prospect Station in Te Anau, so he could train with the FEAR Youth team in preparation for this year's Adventure Racing World Championships.

Former Fiordland College head student Josh Pearson has been a member of FEAR Youth for 3 years and in January 2021 he participated in his first multi-day adventure race - the Wilderness Traverse of Fiordland, alongside his teammate Dean Stewart and his twin-brother Zac.

He was the only team member with no prior experience of competing internationally.

FEAR Youth at the Stage 3 abseil. Photo: Keegan Magness - @chester_captures

Cantabrian, Molly Spark, was introduced to endurance racing at a very young age by her father.

She first entered the Coast to Coast as a 16-year-old, running over Goat Pass.

This year, she has competed in three big multinational events.

She ran the Coast to Coast in January in the tandem mixed category with Australian, Andrew Reid, which they won.

Two weeks later, she competed against the world’s best in the Godzone adventure race in a team which included fellow FEAR Youth teammate Fynn Mitchell.

FEAR Youth head out on their mountain bike leg. Photo: Keegan Magness - @chester_captures

Spark said she first met her Southland FEAR Youth teammates, as a Year 12, when she was competing in an Adventure team race in Cromwell.

"My team came first. The boys from Southland came second," Spark said.

"Later when they were signing up for the Godzone, they needed a girl, so they asked me to join them."

"They rocked up at my place and we went to Nelson for the WTF (Wilderness Traverse Fiordland) event."

" And we’ve raced together ever since.”

FEAR Youth team members, surrounded by fellow New Zealanders at the completion of the 2023 World Championships. Photo: Keegan Magness - @chester_captures

FEAR Society president, and Youth team coach and mentor Andy Magness, said this year's World Championships were the longest race in ten years.

"It was [also] the team’s first unsupported race, meaning that contact with the support crew was limited."

"The team had no help with gear changes or obtaining food. They had to do it all by themselves," he said.

Magness said it was the first time the young competitors had been to Africia and the temperature was much hotter than they had anticipated.

"The temperature on day one was above 40 degrees Celsius and it was quite humid."

"Initially they were going fast and were in the lead."

Photo: Keegan Magness - @chester_captures

"A couple of team members got heat stroke."

"Molly had been drinking a lot of water and washed all her electrolytes out of her body."

"The next day she felt so sick, she couldn’t eat anything. Her legs swelled up."

"We gave her some salt tablets and some electrolytes, and that helped."

"Everybody suffered. Fynn and Dean had diarrhoea,” he said.

“They are pretty tough, but nothing prepared them for these temperatures."

"I thought they were going to pull out of the race, but they slowed down and let Molly set the pace. From then on she was getting stronger and stronger.”

“The first and the last stage of the race was running on sand dunes."

"Navigation on sand dunes was very hard, as was running on sand with wind sand-blasting the body."

"On the second day a storm rolled in with heavy rain."

"The team got to sleep on the bank of the river, while the storm was raging, they shivered under their foil blankets.”

“After the nineth stage they were completely broken."

"With one stage to go they were falling to pieces."

"Josh had lacerations on his feet. They were moving very slowly."

"Molly was the one that kept them going. She’s very driven.”

Magness said he was very proud of the FEAR Youth achievement.

“It’s to their credit that even though they were the youngest team, they were able to overcome all those challenges and finish in the top ten teams.”

A week after they completed the race the team members are slowly recovering from their exertions, although it will take time to fully heal their bodies. They are catching up on sleep and eating good food. 

Asked if she ever has doubts or wonders why she’s putting her body under so much stress, Spark said “I love the sport so much that I never doubt myself."

"If you like what you do, you make time for it."

"It’s all about discipline and balance.”