The French ultra-trail star François D’Haene, away from the trails for a year after a serious injury, announced Wednesday October 5 his participation in the Diagonale des fous, a legendary race contested on the island of Reunion from from October 19. “ Very happy to return to the path of competition, that of Ultra, and even more so with the Grand Raid de la Réunion, on the intense island where I did my first 100 miles in 2009 », Wrote the four-time winner of the event (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018) on social networks. In mid-September, D’Haene expressed his “desire to do another race” before the end of the year, marked by months of rehabilitation following a triple malleolar fracture. “ I resumed training very gradually from mid-July, and today, I feel better (…) If all goes well, why not consider a little ultra-trail before the end of the year? “, he confided. Quadruple winner of the Ultra-trail du Mont-Blanc (2012, 2014, 2017, 2021), this trained physiotherapist is one of the great stars of long-distance mountain running, with the Spaniard Kilian Jornet or even the American Courtney Dauwalter. At the edge of precipices and on stony paths and ridges, the Diagonale des fous crosses the former Bourbon Island from side to side and from south to north over 165 km, with more than 10,000 meters of positive altitude difference. The start will be given in Saint-Pierre on October 19.
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