Japanese team East Wind became the first team from the Far East to complete the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race when they arrived at the Beagle Channel finish line on Tuesday.
Spanish team Air Europa Bimont secured second place in the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Team Helly Hansen-Prunesco finished the race at around 6am on Monday morning after experiencing intense conditions while kayaking across the Beagle Channel and getting lost on a tough final trek that included an ascent of Mount King Scott.
Team Nord Water had to drop out of the race at PC15 after team member Tuomas Sovijarvi suffered a suspected leg fracture. He slipped on a rock after the rappel section at PC9 but continued to trek through to PC15, where a doctor assessed the injury and the pain became too much to carry on.
The rest of Nord Water continued on, just for the experience, joining Switzerland, Germans Herbertz, GearJunkie.com from the USA and Canadians Untamed New England for the final kayak and trek, with Japanese team East Wind, who arrived at checkpoint 15 in the middle of the day, the only other team still in the race.
The teams enjoyed much calmer conditions than Helly Hansen-Prunesco experienced across the channel and were able to enjoy the spectacular mountain backdrops on the paddle to Wulaia, where Charles Darwin famously brought back a native who had been taken to England to become civilised.
The sharp point of Mount King Scott looked set to give racers a real challenge straight off the paddle but the climb was cancelled due to bad conditions. That left a 26km trek through dense forest to reach the finish line, which was set up on a point on the Isla Navarino jutting out into the Beagle Channel.
In a dramatic battle for fourth, Herbertz pushed hard and were the first competing team to arrive at the finish. Switzerland had to arrive quickly to maintain the advantage they took into the dark zone and after getting lost on the final trek they only just made it – claiming third by just 12 minutes after more than 145 hours of racing.
American team GearJunkie.com secured fifth place, 2hrs 13mins behind Herbertz and just 46mins ahead of Canadians Untamed New England. East Wind are expected to arrive in the finish line tonight, making it one of the fastest races on record and one of the highest finish rates ever seen in the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race.
FINAL TIMES (Confirmed)
1. 1 Helly Hansen-Prunesco UK 126hrs 8mins
2. 16 Air Europa Bimont ESP 142hrs 46mins*
3=. 4 Switzerland SWI 145hrs 6mins***
3=. 9 Herbertz DE 145hrs 6mins***
5. 7 GearJunkie.com USA 147hrs 31mins**
6. 5 Untamed New England CDN 148hrs 17mins**
7. 2 East Wind JPN 162hrs 20mins**
8. 11 Nord Water FIN/SWE reached PC15
9. 12 Almost Famous USA reached PC10
10. 6 Terra Mundo Lontra BRA reached PC10
11. 3 Eddie Bauer USA reached PC10
12. 8 Almas Patagonicas CL reached PC10
13. 14 BOE Ejercito de Chile CL reached PC9
14. 15 Fast and Light UK reached PC8
*Inc 6hrs penalty
** All teams who did not climb mount King Scott have a correction of 7hrs
*** Teams agreed to share 3rd place after correction for the missing Tyrolean at PC10









