Lochaber Gets World Championships For 2007

Hats off to Lochaber which has been selected to play host to the 2007 Adventure Racing World Championship, a huge coup for Britian's mountaineering capital.

The area - around Fort William and including Ben Nevis, Glencoe and the Mamores - beat off a challenge from South Africa, partly because of the success of this year's inaugural Wilderness Arc event, the UK's first World Series adventure race.

The five-day event - see report on Sleepmonsters - was widely acclaimed and the organisational efficiency proved to the world championship promoters that the area has what it takes to host one of the main events in the adventure racing calendar. As a result, the 2007 Wilderness Arc will be the world championships.

Geoff Hunt of the promoters told The Scotsman: "The talents and skills of the event organisers in Wilderness Arc are outstanding, and we are particularly pleased to see the guaranteed support from the Scottish Executive through EventScotland and the other partners. It is this type of backing which ensures we can showcase adventure racing internationally."

Adventure racing specialist site, Sleepmonsters hailed the decision as 'a spectacular coup for adventure sport in the UK'.

It also quotes ACE Races director, Phil Humphreys, the company behind Wilderness Arc as saying:

"Jim, Gary and I are tremendously excited about the prospect of staging the AR World Championship in 2007. As organisers we have put in a huge amount of work this year to deliver the inaugural Wilderness ARC and we are delighted that the quality of the event has been recognised beyond the scope of the competing teams. Scotland is a wonderful country with a rich and diverse culture; the dramatic mountainous terrain will challenge the best teams on Earth and provide the perfect setting to determine the Adventure Racing World Champions."

The decision is also good news for Fort William, which is currently marketing itself as 'The Outdoor Capital of the UK'.

More information on the Wilderness Arc event at the event's web page.