Ultra sport athlete Matthieu Bonne (31) has broken the 48-hour world running record. He ran a total of 485.099 kilometres over the two days. The previous record was 473.5 kilometres, but Bonne had already reached that distance after almost 47 hours. ‘Breaking such a mythical record is indescribable,’ Bonne told reporters afterwards.
Ultra sportsman Matthieu Bonne breaks world record and runs 485 kilometres in 48 hours
Colin Clapson
Published:
Matthieu Bonne ran 485.099 kilometres in 48 hours. In doing so, he breaks the world record of 473.5 kilometres that had been held by Greek ultrarunning legend Yiannis Kouros since 1996. After 46 hours and 40 minutes, Bonne had already reached that distance.
Bonne also won the 48-hour run in Pabianice, Poland. Although, of course, the world record was a bigger goal.
‘The conditions here are ideal and Bonne feels good,’ his team said before the start. He experienced a difficult moment on the eve of his assault on the record, but when daylight returned, he put that behind him. To maintain his pace, rest breaks were shortened from 12 to 6 minutes.
‘Super-heavy’
‘Running for two days straight, with a 6-minute break once every 3 hours... You can't even call that a break,’ Bonne said.
He persevered, but it was by no means easy, even for a diehard like him. ‘Mentally it's super tough and after a dozen hours you start to feel it physically too.’
Breaking such a mythical record is indescribable, Bonne adds. ‘It's just madness.’ How will he celebrate this successful record attempt? With a pizza, of course!