Wānaka resident Sarah Veasey is training hard with three months to go until she represents New Zealand at the Obstacle Course Running World Championships in Costa Rica. 

Obstacle course running combines speed and strategy, with competitors racing through a series of obstacles which can be anything from monkey bars to mud pits and rope climbs to balance beams.

Sarah got her first taste of obstacle course running with the Alpha Challenge in Wānaka in 2021.

“The first time I did it it was very much for fun to see what it was about,” she said. “After doing the Spartan event in Australia that really hooked me.”

She has been regularly competing in obstacle course running events ever since and in March she found out she had qualified for the world champs, where she will compete against racers from around 140 other countries.

She is thinking of competing in all three of the races on offer: a 100m (with 12 obstacles), a 3km (with 20 obstacles) and a 15km (with 50 obstacles).

Sarah said training has involved lots of gym sessions and running, and trying to mimic obstacles by doing things like “getting out on the monkey bars and climbing on ropes”.

Obstacle course running is a “relatively new event” so there aren’t many training facilities around and Sarah is one of only a couple of South Islanders selected for the world champs.

Another byproduct of the sport being newer and lesser known than others is there is no funding to travel to the world champs, so as well as training Sarah has been planning fundraiser events to help her get there.

The first of those fundraisers will take place tonight (Thursday May 9) at Ground Up brewery with a quiz night starting at 7pm, and some sausage sizzles and other fundraising events will follow.

Sarah said she’s “very excited” as the world champs get closer and closer.

The event will take place in San Jose, a central volcanic mountain region of Costa Rica, and she will be away for around eight days.

It will be Sarah’s first time representing New Zealand and her first long-haul overseas trip, and she’s excited to meet the other Kiwis and people from around the world at the competition.

“Something I like [about obstacle course racing] is even though you race on your own, you always meet people out on the course and everyone is really supportive,” she said.

Support Sarah by heading along to tonight’s quiz night (email [email protected] to book), keeping an eye out for her future fundraiser events, or making a donation to her Givealittle page (which comes with the bonus of putting donors in the draw for a Devold jumper or a new BBQ).

Sarah thanked Keighley Redshaw for organising tonight’s quiz and the sponsors (Sidekick Wānaka, GroundUp, Morven Design & Build, Beanies Accounting, Devold, Thieving Kea, Kinisi Running, Inside Tattoo, The Next Chapter, Mt Outdoors, Health 2000, Paradiso Cinema, Realm, Three Chairs Hair Salon, Cheapskates, Moana Road, Wastebusters, Amigos, Big Fig, Naturally Pawsome and Murray Walker) for their support.

PHOTO: Supplied