VERONA: Lithuanian ultra marathon runner Aleksandr Sorokin shattered his own world record at the IAU 24-hour European Championships with a distance of 319.614km – just 10km less than it would have taken him to run the length of his home country from top to bottom.
Sorokin averaged a pace of 4:30 per kilometre at the event in Verona, Italy to eclipse his previous mark of 303.506km, set in August last year.
“I’m very tired, however I’m double excited,” the 40-year-old wrote in a post on Instagram.
“Very, very thankful for your support, I really felt it.”
Second place in the event, which took place from Sept 17 to Sept 18, went to Poland’s Andrzej Piotrowski (301.858km) while Italy’s Marco Visiniti finished third (288.437km).
In the women’s event, Poland’s Patrycja Bereznowska ran 256.250km to finish ahead of Frenchwoman Stephanie Gicquele and compatriot Malgorzata Pazda-Pozorska.