New Zealand's expedition length adventure race GODZone put the ‘sold out' sign up one day after opening entries back in September. It is now confirmed one of the largest fields will line up in Rotorua next November.

The nine-day event starts in 12 months in Rotorua from November 19 to November 28, 2020.

Of the 90 teams to gain an official Chapter 9 racing spot, 11 teams hail from Rotorua and the surrounding district.

'Having 11 local teams step up indicates how excited locals are having the world's largest adventure race in their neck of the woods, and it's going to be fascinating to watch how they perform racing in their backyard,” says event director Warren Bates.

One high profile Rotorua competitor is two-time Olympic canoe slalom champion Mike Dawson, entering into the adventure racing scene for the first time in 2020, the Rotorua Lakes Council says in a statement.

On course: Slalom canoe champion Mike Dawson. Supplied photo.

Mike recently stepped away from a 15-year canoe slalom career that saw him attend 11 world championships, multiple World Cups and two Olympic games.

He follows such other sporting greats as former All Black Richie McCaw and former Springboks back Stefan Terblanche who took on the event post their respective rugby careers.

Richie McCaw. Photo: Phil Campbell.

Mike says having the toughest adventure race in his local region was the motivation to enter a team.

"… With Rotorua announced as the location, I wanted to do it,” he says. 'It's a massive learning curve as we start training, and one of our team members has done it a couple of times before, so that's super helpful.”

"In my sport of Olympic kayaking, you train all year to be powerful and explosive over a 90 second period whereas with GODZone, it's about being fit and strong over seven to eight days, so the whole game is massively different.”

The novice Rotorua team will spend the next 12 months preparing for the evet; it is racing at an event in Taranaki this weekend.