Running News Daily

Chen Huang of China and Denmark's Kristina Madsen both claim fourth wins in race five of World Marathon Challenge

Chen Huang of China and Denmark's Kristina Madsen continued their domination of the World Marathon Challenge in Madrid, Spain on Tuesday (February 11) with their fourth victories out of the five marathons held so far.

"Well, I ran the course last year, I did a 3:12 last year, my personal best last year, so I knew what was coming. Embraced all the hills, I like the uphills and I like the downhills, so it's just a perfect course for me, perfect." Says Madsen.

The athletes are attempting to run seven marathons in seven days which began last week in Cape Town (Africa), followed by Novo (Antarctica), Perth (Australia), Dubai (Asia), Madrid (Europe), Fortaleza (South America) and Miami (North America).

In Madrid, Chen completed the marathon held on the Jarama motor racing track in a time of three hours, 14 minutes, 32 seconds, finishing almost four minutes ahead of Frenchman Olivier Thiriet.

Madsen won the women's race in 3:18:25, crossing the finish line alongside Thiriet and almost five minutes clear of American Jessica Jones in second place.

Chen's only finish off the winner's podium was in Antarctica where he was fourth, while Madsen's only defeat so far was when she took second place behind Jones in Perth.

Immediately after the race, the athletes travelled to Fortaleza in Brazil for race six on Wednesday (February 12) with the concluding race in Miami in the early hours of Thursday (February 13).

Ultrarunner Kristina Madsen of Denmark wins Antarctica Marathon overall at World Marathon Challenge

Race director Richard Donovan had to do some last-minute scrambling to reschedule travel and race times at the 2020 World Marathon Challenge when weather conditions prevented the group from flying to Antarctica on Thursday as scheduled.

Time waits for no man or woman when you have only seven days to run seven marathons on seven continents, so instead, the challenge kicked off in Capetown, South Africa, where elite ultrarunner Kristina Madsen of Denmark was the first female to cross the finish line. On Day 2 of the challenge, in extremely cold, windy conditions, Madsen won the Antarctica marathon outright in 3:54:20.

Madsen, 34, is a veteran of both WMC (she was second female last year) and many ultras and Danish national teams.

The third marathon is underway in Perth, Australia today, having started at 11:30 p.m. local time.

That wasn’t the only last-minute change to this year’s challenge. There were originally 42 competitors from 15 countries participating (25 men and 15 women), and one Canadian, Elaine Du.

But travel restrictions due to the coronavirus meant seven individuals who were either from China or who had recently traveled there could not participate. Donovan has offered to bring all seven back for the 2021 challenge at no charge.