It has been an interesting and eventful night and early morning so far. At 7am local time at Balaton, Alan wrote.

“A beautiful, wind free, sunny morning dawns. 2nd placed Wolfgang Schwerk has overnight has chased down the early leader with William and Trond not too distant as perhaps we see the start of a race !!”

Alan also sent a “Picture of Wolfgang looking ominously comfortable.”

Caroline Lee kindly confirmed that 2 RSA records have indeed been set, writing :

“Johan Van Der Merwe did set a new RSA Mens 24 hour road record. The previous record was 210km.
He is currently on 327km, which has surpassed the previous RSA 48 hour record of 312km.
William Sichel is currently 3rd at Balaton, on 271km.”

Excellent running by Johan Van Der Merwe, who was generally expected to clock up a very good distance in the first 48hrs but has clearly surpassed himself.

As mentioned, William has moved up to a current 3rd place, around 40km behind Wolfgang Schwerk and a little over 50km behind Johan Van Der Merwe, but with Trond (of Norway) on almost the same distance as William.

With more than 4 days of a 6 day race left to run, this is way to close to call at this point, but it is probably safe to say that the number 1-4 positions are likely to change a little as the race progresses and the runners are going to be making the most of the cooler or more shaded hours of the day (especially those runners from far cooler climates!).