Vietnamese female athlete makes history in the world's toughest race

(Dan Tri) - Vu Phuong Thanh made history by becoming the first Vietnamese female athlete to complete the Triple Deca Continuous challenge, the longest super triathlon race in the world.

Not only a Vietnamese athlete, Thanh Vu (full name Vu Phuong Thanh) is among the first 7 athletes in the world to complete the Triple Deca Continuous challenge - a race taking place in Desenzano del Garda (Italy) and considered the most difficult in the world to date. This is a super triathlon race that started on September 1, but it was only after 45 consecutive days of participating in the challenge (October 15) that athlete Thanh Vu was able to complete the competition (the deadline of the race is October 16).

Thanh Vu (top right) is one of the 7 athletes who completed the Triple Deca Continuous challenge in Italy, when the race had 6 people drop out and one athlete did not complete the race (Photo: Triple Deca).

Accordingly, Thanh Vu and the athletes had to complete the super triathlon competitions including a 144km pool swim (time limit 96 hours), a 5,400km bike ride on asphalt and flat roads with a length of 7km (time limit 550 hours) and a 1,260km run on a 1km route (time limit 550 hours). Thanh Vu (who is known as the most durable Vietnamese woman in the world) finally completed the competition with a time of 1,044 hours, 7 minutes and 45 seconds, nearly 36 hours faster than the total time limit (1,080 hours). The specific parameters that the girl born in 1990 achieved were 95 hours and 47 minutes of swimming, 535 hours and 53 minutes and 56 seconds of cycling and 403 hours and 35 minutes and 23 seconds of running. The above achievement helped Thanh Vu rank 7th in the list of 8 athletes who registered to participate and complete the competition (a total of 14 athletes registered to participate but 6 athletes dropped out). Currently, only Taiwanese athlete Tsai Ming Yi has not completed and is still doing the running challenge. Notably, not only completing the competition, Thanh Vu also made a miracle when becoming the female athlete with the best parameters in the running event at this race. "Everything was like a dream when the first three women to complete this distance in the history of Ultra Triathlon all achieved the best results in one event. Lia Dreghiciu Sterciuc set a personal record for the swimming part, Shanda Hill had the best cycling parameters. Although I was devastated at first, I overcame and achieved the best running time thanks to the love and care from Tanya Piratay, Anthony Leigh and Brad Kelley - people in my support team", Thanh Vu shared on social media after completing the race. In 2016, Thanh Vu made a record as the first Asian woman to run through the four harshest deserts in the world, including: Sahara, Gobi, Atacama, and Antarctica in the 4th international ultra-endurance race (Deserts Grand Slam) with a total distance of up to 1,000km in just 6 months (from May to November 2016). In 2022, Thanh Vu became the first Vietnamese female athlete to win the Deca Ultratriathlon after overcoming a distance of 2,260km, in which she swam 38km, cycled 1,800km and ran 422km.

Dantri.com.vn

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/nu-van-dong-vien-viet-nam-lap-ky-tich-o-giai-dua-khac-nghiet-nhat-the-gioi-20241015205408211.htm