Defending champion Viktoria Brown of Whitby, Ont., has broken the overall 48-hour Canadian record at the Global Organization of Multi-day Ultramarathoners (GOMU) 48-hour World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, with an astounding 405.025 km (251 miles), surpassing her own previous Canadian women’s record of 363.928 km (226 miles) set last year, as well as the previous record Canadian men’s/overall record of 368.036 set by Jerry Hughes in 2022. Brown is the first Canadian ever to run farther than 400 km in 48 hours; she took third place in the women’s event on Sunday.
GOMU was inaugurated in 2022 and the 48-hour and 6-day world championships take place every year; Brown won the first two editions, but says a fuelling error in the final 10 hours cost her the victory this year. Brown holds dual Canadian-Hungarian citizenship, and her achievement (a 40-km personal best) is also a Hungarian record. The women’s race was won by Stine Rex of Denmark, with 435.564 km (270 miles); Rex was also third overall. Irina Masanova of Russia was third (fourth overall), with 434.912 km. (Rex broke U.S. ultrarunner Camille Herron’s world record of 435.336 km, but according to iRunFar, the record is not ratifiable, since the event is not sanctioned by the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU), which maintains world record books in ultrarunning.
“I’m extremely happy with my results, even though I didn’t have a perfect race,” Brown told Canadian Running on Monday. “Up to 38 hours, it all went magically, but then, unfortunately, I made a nutritional mistake and my digestive system gave out, so I couldn’t take part in the incredible final push that the other ladies fought out. I still had a fantastic race, and achieved a result that I had never thought was possible, but now of course I’m contemplating how much better I could do without that mistake.”
The event took place on a looped road course in Balatonfüred, 127 km from Budapest.
“[Brown] was leading from day one to the last six hours, and she pushed,” said GOMU president Trishul Cherns after the event, “but the other women put the hammer down. It’s because of Viktoria that Rex was able to set the world record.” He added that Brown is “Canada’s Camille” (referring to Herron)–”but I prefer to call her ‘Queen Viktoria.’” Cherns is Canadian and races for Canada, though he lives in the U.S. There were no other Canadians competing at this year’s event.
Men’s results
Bartosz Fudali of Poland won the men’s event, with 447.293 km (278 miles); Nicolás de las Heras Monforte of Spain was second, with 441.343 km (274 miles), and Beda Szabolcs of Hungary was third, with 433.869 km (269 miles).
The EMU 6-day world championships are set to take place from Sept. 5-11, also in Hungary.
For full results of the GOMU 48-hour world championships, click here.
