As Richie McCaw prepares for the Wellington press conference that, presumably, will bring the curtain down on his extraordinary rugby career, cousin Alex is starring at the South Island gliding championships, being held at at Omarama.
The younger McCaw, a Cantabrian, completed a 1000km flight at the weekend, and is heading to Narromine, in Australia, to represent New Zealand at the world junior gliding championships.
Alex is among 22 registered competitors at the 51st annual South Island championships, which are scheduled to finish on Saturday.
One of the newcomers is Alaskan Keith Essex, who led the open class after the first two days of competition.
Yesterday, the pilots were set an ''area-assigned task'' which involved a 300km journey around three checkpoints.
Contest director Geoff Soper said wind and weather conditions had been favourable to good gliding.
