With only around 3 hours left to run in the 144 hr / 3 day race, things could hardly be more dramatic in the final stages.

Wolfgang Schwerk leads with a very healthy margin, having thus far covered approximately 521 miles / 839 km

Wolfgang is followed by Trond Sjĺvik in 2nd position with circa 492 miles / 792 km – we can probably expect to see Trond pass the 800 km & 500 mile marks before the end of the race.

The real excitement at present is in the battle for 3rd place. William Sichel & Miro Režonja spent most of the past 2 days battling for third position, lapping each other at frequent intervals.  During the last few hours, previously 5th placed Pula Tamás of Hungary has put on a brave burst of speed to pass both William and Miro to take the  3rd spot at present. This will be very popular with the “home crowd” in Balaton who will be pleased to see such an excellent performance by the 39 yr old Hungarian (20 years younger than William!).

However, it’s not over yet, and at present only 8 km, a little under 5 miles, separate Pula Tamás in 3rd, Miro Režonja in 4th and William in 5th, so we could possibly still see a change in the finishing positions.

Regardless, William has done surprisingly well to come back after suffering Heat Fatigue earlier in the race, when he was forced to spend around one entire day walking as he was unable to run; while inevitably William will be a little disappointed with his eventual final distance, on the other hand he should be pleased that his conditioning, recovery rate and perhaps most of all, his mental toughness has enabled him to still run over 450 miles (and counting).

More as it happens

Shaun