Press and News - 19.09.2001

Discovery Channel World Championship Adventure Race 2001

Winning teams were GPS tracked by Competitio at the Discovery Channel World Championship Adventure Race in Switzerland.

The top 3 teams (1st Nokia Adventure, Finland - 2nd Pharmanex, New Zealand - 3rd Eco-Internet, USA) have been tracked from start to the finish line using the GPS tracking system provided by Competitio. The race has been very tight until the finish line in Zermatt. The 420 km race combining the disciplines of mountain biking, trekking, rafting and glacier walking proved to be very difficult as only 9 teams out of 45 reached the finish line.

A total of 11 teams have been tracked using GPS units "GPaccS" from Competitio. The GPS data collected during the race will provide the "story" of each team. The race was filmed by the Discovery Channel and the GPS data will be used to enhance the TV coverage. The four-hour television mini-series will be exclusively broadcast in 2002 to Discovery Channel's global audience in 150 countries worldwide.

Competitio GPS unit is powered by the u-blox GPS receiver module, a product from u-blox ag in Thalwil (Switzerland). Extremely small and low-powered, it provides the high performance required for tracking adventure racers in week-long expedition race.

About Competitio, Inc.

Based in Montreal, Quebec (Canada), Competitio develops advanced GPS-based solutions and systems for tracking sport performance. Using the latest technological developments in Global Positioning, the company is pioneering new ways for performance measurement. With Competitio technology, outdoor long distance sports athletes, trainers and spectators will have a way to watch, measure and analyze performance. Competitio provides GPS tracking services using the Java Race Viewer and the patent pending GPaccS GPS unit.

About u-blox

u-blox currently employs a workforce of 38 at locations in Switzerland, Germany, Hong Kong, England and the USA. In the last fiscal year, sales totalled some CHF 17 million (sales in 1999 came to CHF 2 million and in 1998 to CHF 200,000). Edzard Reuter, former Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler-Benz, is president of the u-blox Board.

Further information