Roux defends his Munga title in record time
On Monday South African trail runner Bennie Roux was crowned overall champion of a strenuous race, The Munga.
After 120 hours of non-stop racing over 400 kilometres he crossed the finish line in 86 hours and 32 minutes.
The route started in Belfast on Wednesday April 18. It followed the escarpment in a north-easterly direction before finishing on the rim of the third largest canyon in the world, The Blyde River Canyon.
Roux defended his 2017 title in a new record time.
Drama unfolded on Mount Anderson above Sabie on Friday night when second-placed runner Pavel Paloncy had to battle not only mist and rain but also failing technology.
The race is GPS navigated and the Czech runner’s GPS device failed. This while he was hot on the heels of Roux after they had left race village three together – Paloncy without banking any sleep.
His mountain experience caused him to use the maze of forestry roads to make his way back down into the valley, where race organisers met him to take him back to the race village at Merry Pebbles by car.
Paloncy lost almost nine hours on the lead, and after a three-hour nap was allowed to rejoin the race at the point where he’d left it 12 hours later – this through innovative race rules. He managed to finish the race in a very credible fourth place.
Roux, however, then faced another international challenger in the form of Bo Larsson – a Danish gardener with a passion for ultra running. Larsson ran an almost perfectly paced race to finish second, only 48 minutes behind the winning time.
New records continued to be set despite the testing weather conditions, and Nicky Booyens completely dominated the women’s race to finish third overall and defend her title in a new record time of
97 hours and 32 minutes.
Photos: Erik Vermeulen
