Aurélien Sanchez became the first French runner on Friday to win the Barkley Marathons, a mythical 160 km ultra-endurance event taking place in Tennessee (United States), in 58 hours 32 minutes and 12 seconds, a-t- we learned on his social networks. Leaving in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in the woods of Frozen Head Park, for the first of his five 32 km loops, the 32-year-old Toulousain arrived just a few minutes before the American John Kelly (58 h 42 m 23 s ) and the Belgian Karel Sabbe (59 h 53 m 33 s). The three men, who had to cross the line before the 60 hours to officially finish the race, are the only “finishers” of the Barkley this year, which had only fifteen – and no French – since its creation in 1986 and which hadn’t seen one since 2017. “Gone! “, simply wrote on his Instagram account Friday Aurélien Sanchez, at the arrival of this test with approximately 20,000 m of elevation in the forests and hills of eastern Tennessee, considered one of the most grueling races in the world. world. Forty athletes took the start of this 36th edition.
Aurélien Sanchez, first Frenchman to win the mythical Barkley
