In the space of a couple of weeks in September 2024, both the men’s and women’s world records for six days of running have been broken, by Matthieu Bonne of Belgium and Denmark’s Stine Rex, respectively.
Multisport endurance athlete Bonne ran 650.138 miles (1,046.296 kilometers) at the 2024 GOMU-EMU 6-Day World Championships in Hungary, to break Yiannis Kouros’s historic record, while multiday specialist Rex notched up 567.688 miles (913.606k) at the 2024 6 dagsløb i Åbybro race in Denmark, to topple Camille Herron’s 2024 record.
Note that the six-day mark is considered by the International Association of Ultrarunners as a world-best performance.
World records for this discipline are thus currently tracked by the nonprofit Global Organization of Multi-Day Ultramarathoners (GOMU).
As per usual, the records are pending ratification.
Stine Rex Sets Women’s Six-Day World Record at the 2024 6 dagsløb i Åbybro
Denmark’s Stine Rex has once again entered the record books, besting the women’s six-day world record by some seven miles, running 567.688 miles or 913.606k at the 2024 6 dagsløb i Åbybro race in her home country.
Stine Rex on the way to setting a new six-day record at the 2024 6 dagsløb i Åbybro. Photo: Simon Haugaard
She bested the women’s record of 560.330 miles (901.764 kilometers) set by Camille Herron in March at the 2024 lululemon FURTHER event in La Quinta, California. Prior to Herron’s 2024 record, the women’s six-day record had been untouched for 34 years.
Rex completed the distance by running 0.87-mile (1.4k) loops around a lake in Åbybro, Denmark. She averaged 94.62 miles (152.27k) per day, finishing at noon local time on September 1.
This comes just three months after Rex set an as-yet-unratified women’s 48-hour world record at the 2024 GOMU 48-Hour World Championships, held at Balatonfüred, Hungary, in June. Rex totaled 270.646 miles (435.564k) on that occasion to surpass Camille Herron’s record of 435.336k by just 228 meters.
Crowds celebrate with Stine Rex after she finishes the 2024 6 dagsløb i Åbybro, setting a new world record. Photo: Simon Haugaard
Matthieu Bonne Sets Men’s Six-Day World Record at the 2024 GOMU-EMU 6-Day World Championships
With an hour to go in the 2024 GOMU-EMU 6-Day World Championships in Hungary, Belgium’s Matthieu Bonne entered the ultrarunning history books, when he surpassed Yiannis Kouros’s 19-year-old men’s six-day world record, ultimately racking up 650.138 miles (1,046.296k) by the time the race concluded on September 11.
Matthieu Bonne on his way to setting a six-day world record at the 2024 GOMU-EMU 6-Day World Championships. Photo: GOMU-EMU 6-Day World Championships
The previous record, held by Kouros, measured 644.23 miles (1,036.80k), set during the 2005 Cliff Young Australian Six Day race at Colac, Victoria, Australia.
Bonne completed the record by running just over 1,164 loops measuring 2,949 feet, or 898.88 meters. He paced the effort prudently and was behind Kouros’s record until the last day. Along the way, he also celebrated the fastest recorded 600-mile split, which he covered in five days, 12 hours, 27 minutes, and 12 seconds. See the live tracker for splits.
The event was run on a flat paved surface, and conditions were mixed, with heavy rain on day four giving way to blue skies and sun for the final push.
Bonne, who describes himself as an “extreme sporter,” has previously completed the Marathon des Sables, and also has accolades in open water swimming — including swimming the English Channel, and navigating the coast of Belgium — and ultra-distance cycling.
Matthieu Bonne hugs female winner Zsuzsanna Maràz at the 2024 GOMU-EMU 6-Day World Championships. Photo: GOMU-EMU 6-Day World Championships
