The Belgian triathlete has just achieved an extraordinary challenge. Never before has anyone completed eight full triathlons on the eight Canary Islands in eight days.
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Matthieu Bonne is an extreme sportsman and this is not his first accomplishment. Having already crossed the English Channel and swum the entire Belgian coastline, this lifeguard has also become a popular figure in Flanders thanks to his appearances on the VRT television show "Kamp Waes".
Trained by Luc Van Lierde, a former two-time winner of the Ironman in Hawaii, an event renowned for being the hardest in the world, this 26 year old from Ostend has just set a world endurance record. Because while finishing an Ironman, that is to say swimming 3.8 km, cycling 180 km and running a 42.195 km marathon, is already a great feat, performing successive events over eight consecutive days on different courses, becomes superhuman.
He completed the longest form of triathlon in under 13 hours on eight islands of the Canary Islands archipelago (La Palma, El Hierro, La Gomera, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and La Graciosa). In total, he swam 30.4 km, cycled 1,440 km and ran 337.6 km. This was a considerable sporting challenge that Matthieu Bonne set himself like a true adventurer. Because between each island, he travelled at night on board a sailboat to legalise this "8 Islands" challenge that no one had managed to complete before him.
This is an extraordinary feat, following on from those already accomplished by other Belgians, such as the ultra-endurance feat recently achieved by Karel Sabbe from Ghent!
