Estonian triathlete breaks world long-distance record

Estonian triathlete Rait Ratasepp has set a new a world record after completing five full-distance triathlons in under 50 hours.

Ratasepp set the record in an ultra-triathlon competition taking place in Switzerland, where the participants had to swim 3.8km, bike 180km and run 42.2km every day for five consecutive days.

The 39-year-old finished each of his five iron-distance triathlons in under 10 hours, completing the event with an overall time of 49:32:49 on 28 August 2022, thus becoming the first man in the world to beat the magical 50-hour mark.

In doing so, Ratasepp broke the existing world record by more than 40 minutes. That previous record was held by Thorsten Eckert, who finished on the same course in 2018 with a time of 50:14:43.

You can see Ratasepp’s finishing times by day below:

• Day 1: 9:53:53
• Day 2: 9:56:10
• Day 3: 9:51:55
• Day 4: 9:53:05
• Day 5: 9:57:48

Ratasepp’s previous record-breaking endeavour

This isn’t Ratasepp’s first triathlon record, though. On 3 December 2021 the Estonian set the new world record for doing 60 full-distance triathlons in 60 consecutive days, finishing with an overall time of 657:40:08.

For 60 days in a row he swam 3.8km, cycled 180km and ran 42.2km. His total distances over the challenge were 228km swimming, 10,800km cycling and 2,532km running. In total, the average time of completing each triathlon was 10:57:40.

That particular attempt took place in difficult conditions on Fuerteventura.

Time for the next big challenge…

Despite the impressive nature of his new record, Ratasepp isn’t done yet. His main goal in 2022 is to run through all eight Canary Islands, crossing each from coast to coast while also taking on the highest peak of each island.

His journey across the archipelago will see him run more than 700km and take on 30,000m of elevation gain. He’ll be taking that challenge on in November.

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