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01 Jan, 1970

Frenchman's dream comes true - OtterBox Action Asia Challenge

OtterBox Action Asia Challenge 2015

Frenchman's dream finally comes true - OtterBox Action Asia Challenge Hong Kong

OtterBox Action Asia Challenge – Sunday May 10, 2015

Winning Team UGlow Pulled Away and Never Looked Back - OtterBox Action Asia Challenge

***All funds donated to Action Asia Foundation from 25 April 2015 to 12 May 2015 will be donated to the Red Cross Nepal and to fund disaster relief supplies urgently needed. See link below***

Hong Kong - 10 May, 2015 –Frenchmen Adrien Choux and Jerome Labouolais of team Uglow pushed their bodies to an absolute limit and won the race at the 17th Hong Kong edition (and 27th Asian edition) OtterBox Action Asia Challenge in a very respectable 4 hour 15 minutes 13 seconds. The race started at 7am not a light was seen on Sunday morning in Tai Lam Chung.

“So easy, and not tiring at all." Joked Choux. "I have joined the Action Asia Challenge for many years, and I even bring the 2006 edition Jersey to the race today, proving that I am a big fan of Action Asia Events! Really beautiful course and we hope there will be more trail running races like Action Asia Challenge. Unfortunately there was no river gully due to the AFCD government ban, which is always very technical demanding. The AFCD should encourage event organizers to do more race in such sections like river gullies instead of banning them. My partner Labouolais is very strong, and I'm relatively slow to him. He kept up the spirit and encouraged me along the way, so we made it eventually. Thanks Uglow for sponsoring us.” said Choux. Overall team winner Frenchmen Adrien Choux and Jerome Labouolais from team Uglow expressed their excitement after finishing the grueling course that involves trail running, mountain biking, abseiling and ocean kayaking.

Crossing the finish line 2nd overall in full adventure category was a mixedTaiwanese team Scott Taiwan finishing in 4 hour 15 minutes 43 seconds. They had a hard fought battle with the winning team during the race. “This is the second time that I joined the OtterBox Action Asia Challenge as the last time was in 2006 with the last nine years passing in a blink of an eye. Having years of trail running experience now, I feel more relaxed this time" said Liu. "Liu is incredibly fast. Sometimes it is so hard for me to follow his pace. We first met in the running club called 'Big Foot', so that's how we started to train together. After today's race, I realized I need more intense training in order to keep up with him. My sense of direction is very weak so I asked Liu almost a hundred times that if we were going on the right way. The course is very well marked and thank you Action Asia Events for organizing it. We had so much fun and really enjoyed the Hong Kong course" Said Japanese woman Keiko, who raised in Taiwan flew over to Hong Kong from Taiwan.

Grabbing 3rd place overall was team Gatorade SportsWorld with Thierry Gloor and Kurt Lynn, who were not so happy with their result but proud of their performance. “It was a tough course, even though no river gullies. Heard that AFCD will not allow us to race in the gullies anymore so several trail running events are already affected. I really hope there are still many more chances to have fun in the river gullies. My favorite part of today’s race was the mountain biking. Unfortunately, we had a small issue that happened when we biked. One of the climbing slings from the harness tangled at the back of my bicycle. It hooked into my bike and my tire went down all of a sudden. I was trying to fix it but then I realized I brought the wrong size of spare tube. At last there were no other options left but to complete the race with one deflated tire. We could have been better if there was no incident. However, I feel more satisfied than usual because we still accomplished the task under a huge obstacle," said Lynn, whose team - Gatorade SportsWorld finished in 4 hours 17 minutes 35 seconds.

In AAC Kayak n Run category, Team Norges Tran with Jens Erik Floor and Perry Li grabbed the overall win, finishing in 1 hour 38 minutes 27 seconds. Team Nasty with Gump Wong and Kwok Wah Wong held onto second place with a brave overall1 hour 46 minutes 24 seconds, and team Chris Davies and Magdalena Cvetkovic rounded out the podium for 3^rd overall and 1^st in the mix with a brave paced 1 hour 46 minutes 32 seconds.

“Grabbed the first place last year with Cowley. This year I teamed up with my new buddy Perry who is very strong so I followed his back to the jungle. We had experience in doing trail running races together but not for kayaking as we are just holiday kayakers. Therefore today’s strategy was to run as fast as possible in order to save time,” said Floor from team Norges Tran. “It was so funny that we crashed with other team's kayak during the race. I think Li did that on purpose because there were two pretty girls on the kayak!” laughed Floor.

"It was amazing. We both enjoyed the kayaking part so much as we don't usually practice that. Loving the team spirit. Kwok is a very good partner, very caring and nice. The hardest part of the race was the downhill trail running section because the surface was all wet. We had to pay extra attention going through,” said Gump Wong from team Nasty.

“Feeling awesome. I love kayaking and running. So today's perfect because I can do both. We trained together all the time. We do long distance running and cross training. One terrifying thing happened during the race. There was a massive dead fish floating next to me when we kayaked. It scared me so I screamed and trembled for a very long time. We both enjoyed today’s race after apart from that,” said Cvetkovic from team Chris Davies and Magdalena Cvetkovic.

There was also a fierce battle in the 15k trail run category. David Woo and Olya Korzh each took the overall winners finishing in 1hour 14 minutes and 1hour 47 minutes 38 seconds respectively.

“The course was extremely wet and technical! I tried hard to grab everything I could to balance myself in the bush. That's where I got so many scratches from. I'm quite familiar with the race course today especially the Tsum Tseng part as Michael (2nd in men's) and I had a race around this area last month. I am so surprised that we joined the same race together again. Michael is a very strong runner. He was ahead of me all the time until we reached the very last bit. I pushed myself so hard to overpass him” said Woo from the United States.

“The course is very beautiful and well-marked. Haven't been here for a long time since last year. To prepare for the OtterBox Action Asia Challenge, I do trial running every week in different places. There were lots of ups and downs in today's course. Normally I do pretty well in downhill but I held back a little bit today as the trail was super wet and technical” said Russian runner Olya Korzh.

The OtterBox Action Asia Challenge offers three race categories: ‘Full adventure’, ‘Kayak n Run’ and ‘15k Trail Run’. The race has received overwhelming response with over 300 participants registered in the OtterBox Action Asia Challenge with a sold out ‘Kayak and Run’ category.

The OtterBox Action Asia Challenge could not have happened without the generous support of OtterBox, and presenting sponsor and the supporting partner like ActionX store, Misfit, Timex, Kirintone and Flyingball, Kitsound, Wastons Water, Salonpas, Packtape, Herbalgy, Oldham Li & Nie Lawyers, Action Asia Foundation and the kind government support from the Hong Kong Police Force, Water Services Department, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Correctional Institute for the OtterBox Action Asia Challenge.

Event Information:

Event Name: OtterBox Action Asia Challenge

Date: May 10, 2015 (Sunday)

Start time: 7:00AM

Start & Finish: Sky BBQ Tai Lam Chung Road, Tai Lam Chung, N.T., Hong Kong

Distances-3 Categories Trail Run-15KM- 90% running on beautiful trails around Tai Lam

Kayak n Run- 7KM Run & 5KM Kayak

Full Adventure- 30+-trail run, mountain bike, abseiling with ropes, and ocean kayaking

About OtterBox:

Built upon fundamentals of hard work, innovation and perseverance, OtterBox is a leader in the production of premier protective solutions for global handheld manufacturers, wireless carriers and distributors.

Incorporating creativity and cutting-edge design into every product, OtterBox creates sleek and durable cases that offer reliable device protection to complement any lifestyle.

OtterBox was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in the U.S. OtterBox Hong Kong operations opened in April 2011 and have established distribution in 14 countries throughout the APAC region.

For more information about OtterBox Hong Kong, please visit www.otterbox.com.hk. We’ve Got Technology Covered.

Donations for Nepal - ***All funds donated to Action Asia Foundation from 25 April 2015 to 12 May 2015 will be donated to the Red Cross Nepal and to fund disaster relief supplies urgently needed. See link below***

http://www.actionasiaevents.com/about-us/action-asia-foundation.html and click DONATE button to see info on bank transfer details.

2015 Otterbox Action Asia Challenge Ranking– 10 May 2015

Full Adventure Race Overall Top 3 Teams

Overall	Name	Gender	Country	Team / Sponsor	Race Time
1	Adrien Choux	M	FRA	Team UGLOW	04:15:13
1	Jerome Laboulais	M	FRA	Team UGLOW	04:15:13
2	Keiko Hirano	F	JPN	Hirano Keiko & YUN Chih	04:15:43
2	Liu Chih Yun	M	TWN	Hirano Keiko & YUN Chih	04:15:43
3	Thierry Gloor	M	CHE	Gatorade SportsWorld	04:17:35
3	Kurt Lynn	M	NZL	Gatorade SportsWorld	04:17:35

Kayak n Run Race Overall Top 3 Teams

Overall	Name	Gender	Country	Team / Sponsor	Race Time
1	Jens Erik Floor	M	NOR	Norges Tran	01:38:27
1	Perry Li	M	HKG	Norges Tran	01:38:27
2	Gump Wong	M	HKG	Nasty	01:46:24
2	Kwok Wah Wong	M	HKG	Nasty	01:46:24
3	Magdalena Cvetkovic	F	CHE	Chris Davis & Magdalena Cvetkovic	01:46:32
3	Chris Davis	M	GBR	Chris Davis & Magdalena Cvetkovic	01:46:32

Trail Run Race Top 3 Men

Overall	Name	Gender	Country	Team / Sponsor	Race Time
1	David Woo	M	HKG	-	01:32:40
2	Michael Allernpach	M	CHE	asiaendurancestore	01:35:10
3	Erich Felbabel	M	FRA	-	01:38:57

Trail Run Race Top 3 Women

Overall	Name	Gender	Country	Team / Sponsor	Race Time
1	Olya Korzh	F	RUS	-	01:47:38
2	Justine Clark	F	GBR	-	01:58:14
3	Marie Gaschignard	F	FRA	-	02:10:41