Grimstrup Wins Stage One
‘Very green, nice views of the hills and cool rivers on the Suncoast gave me the endurance to do this run, scenes are just wonderful.’
Danish runner Simon Grimstrup finished the stage one of the Vodafone Lost Island Ultra Marathon 35 km in first place at Raviravi Village yesterday.
After 35kilometres, he clocked 3 hours 53 minutes. Fijian national marathon rep, Kennol Narayan came in second with a time of 4 hours 18 minutes. Narayan is only running the first and the last stage of the ultramarathon.
American Andrew Brock, New Zealander, Andrew Hedgman came in third place. The ultramarathon started at 7am from close to Yaqara near Togovere Village in Ra. From Togovere, runners turned inland across Yaqara’s land for the first 20 kilometres before descending on a track behind the Nakauvadra range for a further 15 kilometres of the footrace’s pretty daunting terrain. Their reward for braving the challenge will be some incredible Fijian hospitality and stunning interior views along the way all of which will be showcased to a global audience.
The runners and organizers were to have camped outside the village however the true Fijian spirit kicked in and the villagers have opened their homes and given their beds to everyone for the night.
World famous ultra-marathoners from the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, France, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand are taking part.
The other three from Fiji include Anna Cowley, Eroni Takape and Petero Manoa.
Grimstrup, a 41-year-old serial ultra-marathon runner, started running when he was 10 years old in the forest and hills in Denmark.
“Very green, very nice views of the hills and cool rivers on the Suncoast gave me the endurance to do this run, the scenes are just wonderful,” he said.
Narayan, a Rakiraki lad, who was crowned winner of the 2016 ultramarathon at the annual Suva Marathon Club run said: “Running here was a morale booster as I was in my own yasayasa (district) and seeing all the runners in awe of Fiji’s beauty just gave me the extra urge to do my country proud,” he said.