SA trail runner, Ryan Sandes, took first place at the 2019 Addo Elephant 76km Ultra Trail run in a time of 6hrs56min, just over a minute over his 2017 course record. French runner, Aurelien Collet took 2nd place.
“It was great to run the Addo Elephant 76km today, the race always has an amazing vibe and it’s really cool to be able to run back in South Africa after racing in New Zealand last month.
“Two years ago I used this race as preparation in my build up to Western States 2017 and that worked really well for me (Sandes won the Western States 100 miler), so I am very happy with how things turned out today. I ran a very similar time to 2017 on the course and felt good.
“It did get very hot in the second part of the race but again that is good preparation and training for Western States this year. I’m super stoked!”
Hilton Dunn celebrated a successful battle to overcome drug addiction with a win in the 100 miler, while Ben Brimble and Melissa van Rensburg were the respective winners in the 44km race.