Elina moved to New Zealand in 2005 after meeting Richard in South Africa at a race earlier that year. Already an athlete of the highest calibre after a World Championship win with Finnish Adventure racing team Nokia Adventure, Elina set her sights on the Multisport scene within New Zealand and had an immediate impact with wins in virtually every event she entered.
Elina’s resume lacked just one race win until 2010 when she finally won the Coast to Coast World Multisport Championship, a race she would surely have won many more times if she’d had the luxury of a lighter racing schedule in the months prior; with one of the drawbacks of being a professional athlete in a minority sport the requirement to race more frequently to earn, as opposed to having the option to train specifically for one big performance each year.
Some of the races that took away from her Coast performances were equally impressive in their own right though, with Elina racking up four consecutive victories at the world’s premier Adventure race, The Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge as a member of Team Adventure Sport NZ which she co founded with Husband Richard in 2007.
This year the Adventure Challenge in Abu Dhabi is not happening, giving Elina that chance to show what she is truly capable of come the Coast to Coast in February 2012.
Elina is then looking at switching focus to Mountain Biking where she has shown amazing potential this year including a win at the legendary Karapoti Classic over some of New Zealand’s best female Mountain Bikers.
In her spare time Elina enjoys fashion and art and has her eye on a career in fashion designing once her sporting commitments begin to ease.
