Bevan Docherty

Docherty and his sister Fiona grew up in Taupō, in the North Island of New Zealand and attended Tauhara College.^[2] Their father Ray was a keen triathlete and their mother, Irene, her sister and Bevan trained and competed with him.^[3]

In 2004, Docherty won the ITU world championship, and the silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, behind fellow New Zealander Hamish Carter. He added another silver medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, and claimed the bronze at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The former world champion has started a new initiative, called "The Docherty Dares programme", aimed at supporting Kiwis to achieve goals they previously never thought possible.

The programme was inspired when Docherty saw Christchurch local, Scott Kotoul, crossing the finish line at the Round Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge. Near exhaustion after only doing half the distance (80 km), Kotoul said he was only going to target the distance of 40 km by the following year. However, Docherty dared Kotoul to enter the entire 160 km bike, so the latter accepted the challenge.

Ben had a friend in new Zealand called Steve.