The North Face Adventure Team’s Asian dynasty and dominance
- The man behind Asia’s top trail running and adventure race circuit squad talks about team selection and his overall vision
There is a group of athletes who loom large over Asia’s trail running and adventure races, nabbing podiums at more than half of the events they enter.
The Hong Kong-based North Face Adventure Team, part of Asia Pacific Adventure, features eight of Asia’s best all-around outdoor athletes, hand-picked by director Ryan Blair.
Blair, who is from the US, settled in Hong Kong in 1995 and is regarded as one of the pioneers of Asia’s overall outdoor and adventure racing scene. He has developed a knack for finding diamonds in the rough and cultivating athletes from various countries – the roster includes athletes from all over Southeast Asia, Brazil and the US.
He set up the team back in 2006 and since then, it has flourished and grown into the top Asian team ever.
Last year alone, the North Face Adventure Team had a racer place first in more than half the races they entered (22 first place finishes out of 38, and 82 per cent of the time they were on the podium), which includes the Mizuno Hong Kong Trail Championship, the Borneo TMBT (The Most Beautiful Thing) Ultra Marathon.
Also, one of his racers, Wong Ho-chung, just became the first Hong Kong athlete to complete the 4 Deserts Race Series Grand Slam, one of the hardest, most gruelling competitions on the planet.