The Kokoda Challenge is a team endurance event that is usually held on the first weekend of Term 3. This gruelling cross-country event involves teams of four students and a teacher hiking together on a course designed to replicate the PNG Kokoda Track. The teams hike for an extended time, during the day and through the night, over rough and steep bush tracks across the mountains of the Gold Coast hinterland. This is not a relay race and all five members of the team must start and aim to complete the course together.
There are two events in the schools competition, both named after heroes of the WWII Kokoda Track battles.
The 48km Jim Stillman Cup is available to Year 9 students and older. This event starts at Numinbah Valley at midday on the Saturday and can be expected to take more than twelve hours to complete.
The 96km Stan Bisset Cup is available to Year 11 and Year 12 students who have previously completed the 48km Jim Stillman Cup. There is limit of three teams per school. This event starts at Mudgeeraba at 7am on the Saturday and can be expected to take more than twenty four hours to complete.
Teams pass through regular checkpoints to finish at Nerang Velodrome the following day.
Participation in the Kokoda Challenge aligns with the pillars of courtesy, commitment, cooperation and consideration on which our school is built. It teaches students about perseverance, team work and the strength of mind it requires to meet and overcome a major challenge. The lead up to the Kokoda Challenge demands commitment to training, to fundraising and to developing a strong team spirit.
Cavendish Road SHS is developing a proud involvement in the Kokoda Challenge, having competed each year since 2008. In that time we have won and placed in both school events and been recognised as the school with the highest level of participation, with close to thirty teams completing the Challenge in recent years.
Further details about the event can be found on the Kokoda Challenge website.
Cav Road training details and other updates can be found in the school’s Calendar events and within the school’s News feed.