Canada’s Ihor Verys has completed his third loop on the Barkley Marathons, at 31:31:47, simply over midway by the race. Verys, 29, has reportedly been working in a lead pack that features multi-time finisher John Kelly, Damian Corridor of the U.Okay., France’s Sebastien Raichon and British athlete Jasmin Paris, who’s one in all solely three ladies who began the race on Wednesday morning. Corridor and Kelly completed loop three moments after Verys, in 32:12:43, and Paris was shut behind in 32:15:53; Verys was first to move again out on loop 4.
Ukrainian Ihor Verys is the primary on loop 4 to steer on the #BM100
Photograph credit score: @howiesternphoto pic.twitter.com/orAckYJTCi
— Keith (@keithdunn) March 21, 2024
At 4:17 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Laz blew the conch, signifying one hour till the race begin, and runners set out on an try to complete 5 loops of the 20+ mile course (the race is regarded as about 120 miles, or 192 km) that includes 1000’s of metres of elevation acquire, with a time restrict of 60 hours. GPS watches will not be allowed; every runner is issued an affordable watch set to “Barkley time,” i.e., the 60-hour restrict. Runners should gather pages comparable to their bib quantity from 13 books hidden on the course (they obtain a brand new bib for every loop); lacking pages imply disqualification. There’s water out there on the course, however no support stations. Runners could solely obtain support from their crew between loops, in camp, the place they’re on the clock. Within the 37-year historical past of the race, solely 17 runners have completed, all of them males.
Verys is comparatively new to the ultrarunning world, however has been topping podiums since he hit the scene 4 years in the past. In 2023, he took the help at Huge’s Yard Extremely World Championships, which was gained by fellow Barkley Marathon competitor Harvey Lewis, who ran a mind-boggling 724 km over 5 days; Verys set a Canadian file of 107 “yards,” smashing his earlier private finest by 267 km. (Lewis dropped out throughout loop 2, early Thursday morning, and was “tapped out” together with a number of different runners.)
Verys has some stable competitors on this yr’s race—that is Kelly’s seventh time (together with two finishes) trying the race; final yr he was one in all three finishers, together with Karel Sabbe of Belgium and French athlete Aurélien Sanchez. Sanchez additionally lined up this yr and completed two loops inside the cutoff, however dropped out shortly after beginning the third. By the 20-hour mark, half of the 34 runners who began had dropped out; on the time of publication, there are 11 remaining.
“I don’t know the way I did that final yr.” – Aurélien. #BM100
— Keith (@keithdunn) March 21, 2024
Verys is the primary Canadian to check his capacity on the Barkley Marathons since 2022, when Nova Scotia’s Jodi Isenor made his newest of a number of makes an attempt on the race—no runners have been in a position to full all 5 loops that yr.
One of the best ways to comply with reside updates of the Barkley Marathons is on Twitter by way of @keithdunn.
