New world record for the legendary Enduroman

Few have successfully achieved the challenge of getting from London to Paris in a triathlon. So 39-year-old Belgian Julien Deneyer has just achieved an extraordinary feat by successfully finishing the three stages of the Enduroman, also known as “Arch 2 Arc”, as it starts at Marble Arch (on the corner of Hyde Park and Oxford Street) and the finishing line is at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe (at the top of the Champs Elysées).

This extreme triathlon was set up in 2000 by Edgar Ette from Great Britain, who was the first to accomplish the feat. Only around 50 athletes have managed to complete this exploit, an extraordinary course that involves running 140 km from London to Dover, then swimming 40 to 45 km across the English Channel before finally “enjoying” a 290 km cycle ride from Calais to Paris.

The most difficult challenge during this triathlon was swimming across the English Channel, the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest for a mountaineer, as the sea traffic makes the passage perilous with powerful eddies. What's more, unlike other races of this type, participants line up alone against both themselves and the stopwatch.

Julien Deneyer, an ophthalmologist by profession, enters the history books of this legendary event with a time of 49:23. The Namur native therefore sets a new record in a race he is also the only person to have finished twice.