The Coast to Coast, which starts with the two-day event on Kumara beach at 7am tomorrow, has again attracted huge international interest.
While the two-day event is a drawcard for those wishing to test the waters of endurance racing, it is the Longest Day - beginning at 6am on Saturday - that steals the show.
This year will be no different, as lining up is three-time champion Richard Ussher, of Nelson, one of the most experienced of the 604 competitors contesting the event.
Ussher (34) returns in search of a fourth title, following some success in ironman, but not to the degree he struck in the world of multisport.
After first racing New Zealand's premier multisport event in 1998, it was not until 2005 that Ussher conquered the great race.
He defended his title in 2006, missed the 2007 event, and won a third title in 2008.
To win a fourth title on Saturday, Ussher must deal with the rising star of New Zealand multisport, Dougal Allen, of Wanaka.
Allen (25) took the race to defending champion Gordon Walker, of Auckland, last year, proving reputations mean little when it comes to doing the business on race day.
While Walker was able to get the jump on Allen over the final kilometres of a weather-altered course, Allen will be much the wiser for the experience.
Allen has gone from strength to strength and improved with every race, since winning the two-day section of the Coast to Coast in 2008 in 12hr 10min 21sec.
While he carried an injury into the Longest Day event in 2009, he still achieved an impressive eighth place, and last year announced his arrival in emphatic fashion when he kept pace with Walker.
Allen making it third time lucky may come as no surprise to some, but first he must overcome Ussher, along with an international threat from Canadian champion Jakob van Dorp and three-time kayak marathon world champion Chad Meek, of Australia.
For Ussher, there is the added incentive of making it a double podium finish with wife Elina (34), who is seeking to defend the women's title.
Should this occur, it will be the first time in the event's 30-year history a husband and wife have claimed the men's and women's titles in the same event.
Keith and Andrea Murray have each won their respective titles, but in separate years.
Keith won the men's in 1994 and Andrea the women's in 1997.
Elina Ussher will again face three-time champion Emily Miazga, of Canada, who succumbed to atrocious weather conditions that swept the first half of the course last year, causing dramatic course changes and ruling out the mountain run.
Others to watch in the women's field are Sophie Hart, of Nelson, Rachel Cashin, of Taumarunui, Sia Svendsen, of Denmark, and Brazilian champion Camila Nicolau.
Of interest will be performances by former All Black and New Zealand sevens representative Dallas Seymour, who is returning after competing for the first time last year; former television presenter Mary Lambie, of Auckland; and former world shearing and two-time Golden Shears champion Paul Avery, of Taranaki, making his multisport debut.
In the two-person team section is race organiser Robin Judkins, who has teamed up with nine-time champion and multisport legend Steve Gurney.
