Eco-Challenge was seen as the pinnacle of the sport of Adventure Racing with 8 races from 1995 to 2002. Exposure on mainstream television brought a boom of races across the world, and many of the current worlds best athletes credit viewing Eco-challenge as their motivation to take up the sport.
Eco-challenger founder Mark Burnett then went on to produce the extremely successful Survivor series that had now been running for 20 years and considered the start of the reality TV scene.
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Over the 17 years since the final Eco-challenge held in Fiji in 2002, the sport has spread across the globe. The Adventure Racing World Series includes up to 12 events each year in different countries and culminates in the Adventure Racing World Championships.
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In 2019, Mark Burnett and his team brought the back to the spotlight with the return of Eco-Challenge Fiji, this time with Bear Grylls as the event host and airing on Amazon Prime as the World's Toughest Race.
Team Gippsland Adventure were selected from over 500 applications to join 65 other teams from around the globe to compete in the #WorldsToughestRace - a 671km course from one side of Fiji to the other.
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Our team consisted of Rob and Kathryn Preston, Tim Boote, Aaron Prince (from NZ) and team assistant Paddy Howlett. And how did we perform? Well it's a secret for now, so be sure to sign up to Amazon Prime to watch all the action from August 14, 2020.