New ultra-endurance world record
After covering more than 677 km in 101 hours of running, the Belgians Ivo Steyaert and Merijn Geerts beat the ultra-endurance record by a wide margin.
This immense feat was accomplished in the frame of the Backyard Ultra World Team Championship.
The principle of such a race is quite simple. The participants on the starting line must complete a 6.7 km course in less than an hour. There is a new start every hour for all those who completed the previous lap within the time limit. The race only ends when there is just one competitor left.
Another specific feature of this type of event is that the athletes start at the same time but can compete from different locations around the world on the 6.7 km accredited course of their choice. That's why this race is called Backyard. The two Belgians opted for the Kasterlee military base in the province of Antwerp.
Specialists in this kind of event, Ivo Steyaert (52 years old) and Merijn Geerts (47 years old) managed to cover 101 6.7 km laps without stopping for four consecutive days. Therefore, they ran a total of 677 km in 101 hours.
Having decided to stop together when all the other competitors had already given up hours ago, they both became the new ultra-endurance record holders. The previous record was already held by Merijn Geerts from Ghent who completed 90 laps last spring.
Congratulations to these two extraordinary athletes who defy all notion of humans' ability to withstand effort.