Land Rover G4 Challenge heads to Mongolia

Land Rover G4 Challenge heads to Mongolia The Finals of Land Rover's ultimate global adventure, the Land Rover G4 Challenge, will take place during 2009 in the most sparsely populated independent country on the planet - Mongolia. A blend of terrain offering arid steppes, mountains and the extreme climate of one of the world's largest deserts, the Gobi, makes Mongolia a natural fit with Land Rover's G4 Challenge.

The Challenge programme kicked off in September 2007 when the competition was announced at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Since then the recce teams have been exploring the toughest terrain in Asia to find a suitably demanding environment to stage the culmination of the competition in 2009.

Land Rover Australia Marketing & Public Affairs Manager, Jon Harris said: "We are very excited to confirm Mongolia as the main location for the Finals of the Land Rover G4 Challenge in 2009. Our team on the ground have been working to find routes that will push our vehicles and the competitors to their limits.

Mongolia is a spectacular country which will enable us to create a truly extraordinary Finals event in 2009. We are also investigating the possibility of extending the Challenge into another area offering different extremes."

The 18 national teams (each comprising of one man and one woman) will be pushed to their limits in a thrilling competition involving off-road driving, and sports such as kayaking, mountain biking and climbing.

The Australian National Selections will take place in October to decide the two men and two women who will get an all expenses paid trip to the UK for the International Selections, and ultimately the Final in Mongolia.

Anyone can sign up for the Challenge, just visit www.landroverG4Challenge.com or call 1800 789 786, for the chance to represent Australia against 17 other countries in the three-week long Challenge Finals.

The 2008/09 Land Rover G4 Challenge programme is run in support of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. This partnership aims to generate in excess of £1m over the course of the next two challenges. In addition to this, each participating nation will be raising funds in aid of their National Society. The winning team will receive a Land Rover to donate to their National Society.

As part of this partnership, a donation has been offered to the Mongolian Red Cross to support their Social Care projects. These projects aim to help the many vulnerable families in Mongolia and provide them with home care, referral services and a move to inclusion in the community. As a result of this it is estimated that over 10,000 people will be reached.

Choijilsuren Ariuntungalag, Social Care and Volunteer Programme Manager of the Mongolian Red Cross commented, "The Land Rover G4 Challenge is providing vital funding support to help the Mongolian Red Cross Society deliver a Social Care Programme which aims to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable families in Ulaanbaatar",