Guillo agreed: "This course was very well designed with a mix of everything. It was more challenging, more in the bush and this is what I like, when you don't touch the concrete. This is the best race we've done out of all the previous Challenges."

Team Watson's, winner of the mixed category, clocked in at 4:25:46, while California's Angels won the women's category coming across the finish line at 5:13:02.

Thailand's Ironman, overall Champions of Race 2 in Thailand, secured 5th position and won the master's category in 4:52, after a grueling kayaking leg.

The Pathetic Pilgrims, German university students, was the winner of the university category - a new category introduced in the Challenge for the first time. The team finished in 6:15:08, followed by Polytechnic University of Hong Kong.

The race started at 8:40am at the CAS entrance near Wong Shek Pier. A field of 79 three-member teams — 66 Hong Kong-based and 13 international teams — sprinted towards Wong Shek Pier where they were greeted by a 10-foot pier jump, followed by a short swim to the shore.

The next leg, a 5-km inflatable kayaking section, ended near Chek Keng Village. This was followed by an orienteering section, included for the first time in the Challenge series, in which each team was given a map with topography and grid references of the surrounding area.

The diverse race course also included trail running, jungle trekking and rock scrambling. It encompassed some surprising areas in Sai Kung, such as Nam She Tsim (Sharp Peak), one of Hong Kong's most spectacular peaks with deadly drops on all sides; Ham Tin Wan, Lok Wu Gorge; and the Sheung Yiu Museum, originally a Hakka village established by a Wong clan in the late 19th century.

Race highlights included a special test requiring competitors to climb over coral rocks at Mong Yue Kok point and swim to Ham Tin beach, jumping a 50-foot cliff, rock scrambling up a 80-foot dam headwall, climbing a 30-foot cargo net on the side of a waterfall, and trekking through more than six other waterfall sections in the Lok Wu Gorge.

Team Finally's Aake Fagereng from Norway said: "I slipped on one of the cliff wall sections and chipped my tooth off, but still enjoyed this incredibly difficult and panoramic course."

The final surprise on the course came when competitors, harnessed to a rope, faced a Tyrolean traverse across the river while hanging upside down. Teams went on to climb a 25-foot cargo net and then carried one of the team members on a bamboo stick across the finish line at the Po Leung Kok Holiday Camp.

"Feedback from our participants has been terrific. We wanted to give newcomers, as well as previous racers, a course they would not forget, filled with surprise elements and interwoven with Hong Kong's spectacular countryside," said Ryan Blair, race director and course designer.

The race raised around HK$160,000 for Action Asia Foundation, an outdoor adventure-based charity established in 1996. Part of the proceeds from the race will fund a series of youth camps combining sports adventure and environmental awareness.

This adventure race in Hong Kong will be highlighted in a one-hour documentary on the National Geographic Channel on April 2, 2001, at 9pm (Hong Kong time). Race 1, which took place in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, on October 15, will premiere on the National Geographic Channel on December 18, at 9pm (Hong Kong time).

The programs will also be broadcast on the National Geographic Channel network, covering over 85 million homes in Asia, Australasia and Europe, as well as on global terrestrial television (US dates to be announced). In Hong Kong, viewers will be able to tune into the programs on Hong Kong Cable TV, Channel 23.

Regional associate sponsors for the entire Challenge series are New Balance and Toyota. The Hong Kong Challenge's local title sponsor is Samsung Anycall and local associate sponsor is Grand Stanford Intercontinental Hong Kong. On-ground supporting sponsors for the Hong Kong race are AXA China Region Insurance Company Limited, Pocari Sweat, Watson's Water, Chamonix alpine equipment, and Sevylor Asia.

Over 200 volunteers from Hong Kong's local community including Outward Bound (Alumni) Association of Hong Kong, Hebe Association, The Hiu Fung Climbing Club, Mountain & Stream, Hong Kong Mountaineering Training Centre, Junior Police Call and professionals from the medical and chiropractic field also supported the race.